Sailors Jason Waterhouse, Lisa Darmanin strike gold as Aussie teammates struggle at Princess Sofia

They won silver in Rio but cousins Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin are fast emerging as Australia’s leading contenders for sailing gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

They won silver in Rio but cousins Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin are fast emerging as Australia’s leading contenders for sailing gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

The pair won the Nacra 17 trophy at the Princess Sofia Trophy in Spain despite wild conditions washing out their final day of competition in the first major Olympic classes regatta in Europe this year.

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It was the third major win in succession for the pair - the only Australians to make it onto the podium and one of only two Aussies crews to finish in the top 15 in their class at the Palma regatta.

The Australian cousins receiving their award.

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“The waves were just too big unfortunately. It’s just not worth racing when it’s like that, you end up breaking gear. The wind had dropped down, but the sea hadn’t,” said Darmanin, who with skipper Waterhouse also won the pre-Olympic Tests event in Japan last year then the Miami world cup in the US earlier this year.

Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin have won gold in Spain. Pic: Pedro Martinez

“We are very happy. That’s three big wins in a row. It feels pretty good but to be honest, we still have lots to learn. We’ve learned big lessons here. We need to go and fix little things,”

Multiple 470 world champions world champions Mat Belcher and Will Ryan finished fifth in a regatta which left Australian Sailing Performance director Iain Murray far from overwhelmed.

“We had expectations that were not fulfilled in the 470 men’s, so there’s a bit of work to do there. Fifth is not where they belong. They had one tough race (DSQ in Race 1), but everyone gets that,” Murray said.

“We came here with higher expectations in the Finn, 49er, 49erFX and 470 women’s, so clearly those results are not great. We need to look at ourselves and ask what we’re not doing right.”