Tokyo Olympics: Australian sailors unite with New Zealand in search for gold

An alliance forged between two of the fiercest rivals in world sport could help significantly bolster Australia’s medal tally at the Olympics.

Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan are one of the favourites in the men’s 470 class.

In rugby, netball and league the fiercest sporting battles are traditionally played out between Australia and New Zealand.

But in this Olympic sport these two sporting heavyweights have united to take on the world.

Australia and New Zealand sailors have joined forces to increase their individual medal hauls in Tokyo where the sport is being raced outside Tokyo city in Enoshima, the venue used at the 1964 Olympics, and which starts on Sunday.

Crews have been crisscrossing the ditch to act as sparring partners due to their coronavirus isolation from European rivals since early 2020.

Australia won four medals in Rio thanks to Will Ryan, Iain Jensen, Nathan Outteridge, Lisa Darmanin, Tom Burton, Jason Waterhouse and Mat Belcher.

“We have had Kiwis training here in the Lasers, the 49ers, the Nacra and the 470s and they are all really good benchmarks,” said sailing team boss Iain Murray, a 2008 Beijing Olympian, America’s Cup campaigner and multiple Sydney to Hobart winner.

“You can’t get better than Pete Burling and Blair Tuke (defending Olympic 49er champions, six time world champions and Americas Cup champions) to train with.

“It’s great we could do it and there should be more of it in the future. We are a bit isolated down here and we benefit from working together.

“You have to be a little less Bledisloe about it and more ANZAC.”

New Zealand 49ers sailors Blair Tuke (L) and Peter Burling are considered gold medal favourites in the 49er skiff in Enoshima.

While most Australian sailors have managed to spent some time in Europe competing and checking the form of rivals, the bulk of their training for the last 16 months has been in local waters, making the new relationship with New Zealand critical.

“It has been really good, we have been isolated for so, so long and so have they,” said Nacra 17 gold medal contender Jason Waterhouse from Sydney’s northern beaches. “We have really missed the racing environment.”

Waterhouse, crewmate Lisa Darmanin and New Zealand training partners Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson managed to compete in a series of regattas in Spain earlier this year before hooking up for one-on-one sessions in Australia.

Mat Belcher and Will Ryan won a silver in Rio and are back for gold this time round.

“It is good to check in with everyone to check you are not going down the rabbit hole, it’s good to validate your training,” Waterhouse said.

Gold medal contender Matt Wearn from Perth also had a New Zealand sounding board ahead of his Olympic debut in the Laser on Sunday as did Victorian skiff brothers Sam and Will Phillips with the Olympic champions Burling and Tuke flying to Queensland for lead-up work.

London Olympic gold medallist Mat Belcher and crewmate Will Ryan, who won silver together in Rio, benefiting from training against the world-class New Zealand crew of Paul Snow-Hanson and Dan Wilcox, who recently won the European Championships.

The first Australians up in the sailing are gold medal contender Wearn (Laser) and fellow debutant Mara Stransky (Laser Radial) on July 25.

Australia has won eight medals from the past two Olympic Games and are in contention for another three in Tokyo.

Sailors will represent in ever class in Tokyo bar the RS:X windsurfing class.