St Kilda’s common foreshore and beach buzz on a summer Sunday became louder when Sailing World Cup Melbourne arrived at its peak. Eight Olympic classes flaked off their Medal Race one by one right off the main beach, St Kilda Baths and pier, much to the delight of sailors and visitors.
By the time, 49er skiff teams of men went hunting gold at 14:30, fifteen knots was the reading on the track. Event director Mark Turnbull took time to valuate the popularity of the final days’ events. He said that they have got huge crowds, plus the sailors are very happy, but importantly there are non-sailors everywhere; it is the general public getting close to the action that is brilliant and one of the reasons why they brought sailing for the sake of fans this year.
Antonio González de la Madrid Rodriguez, the World Sailing’s Technical Delegate, has agreed going out of St Kilda put the game front and centre. Today, they saw this with St Kilda beach packed and the pier bustling. Melbourne is the start of Sailing World Cup 2016 series and the journey to 2016 Rio Olympic Games is well and very much on.
The 2015 World Cup that attracted over nine-hundred contestants representing twenty-three countries across 9 invited, 9 Olympic as well as 3 Paralympic classes, was the Oceanic qualification game for Rio Olympic Games 2016. As of this week the Olympic campaign starts for Cook Islands sailors Taua Henry (Laser) and Teau McKenzie (Laser Radial) who for entry for Pacific island nation.