Australia’s Men’s 470 sailing team of Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page have won the 470 European Championships in Lake Garda, Italy. It is the sixth significant medal result in the past twelve months for the three time World Champions and ISAF ranked World Number One team, who are considered favourites for Gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

In choppy 25 knot conditions, Sydney’s Wilmot and Page played it safe and completed a textbook course, repeating the two tacks and one gybe formula around the buoys to cross the race line in second. It was all they needed to secure their place on top of the podium with 70 points, while Great Britain’s Nic Asher and Elliot Willis finished second with 74 points and The Netherlands’ Sven Coster and Kalle Koster finished in third place with 77 points.

“We had a bit of bad luck on the first day of this regatta which saw us start in 21^st position, but we always just focus on improving our performance each day,” said Wilmot.

“Going into the medal race we were in third position with only two points between us and the teams in first and second, so we knew what we needed to do in this final race to make up the difference.”

A bad day was exactly what the Australian Women’s 470 crew of Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson experienced in their medal race, with several unfortunate incidents on the water leading to their disqualification from the final race.

The Perth pair thought they were at fault in an incident with the US boat and took it upon themselves to complete a penalty turn, then capsized as they raced aggressively to make up time and water. It led to a classic domino effect as they came close to another competitor, then the Finish boat and then capsized again in the extreme, heavy conditions.

The result saw them drop from the lead down to third overall with a total of 96 points. Austria’s Sylvia Vogl and Carolina Flatscher won with 85 points and Switzerland’s Emanuelle Rol and Anne-Sophie Thilo finished second with 95 points.

“We always try to race fairly and you lose less points on a penalty if you turn yourself rather than being flagged so, knowing we could have still won the regatta with the points lead we had, we did the right thing,” said Rechichi.

“In racing so aggressively in such windy conditions, one thing led to another and it ended up a very bad day on the water for us.

“We learned from it, we’re not dwelling on it and we like to think that now we’ve gotten our bad luck day out of the way before the Games.”

Australian Sailing Team Director Michael Jones said he was optimistic of a great outcome at the Olympic Games.

“Our 470 Coach Victor Kovalenko achieved double gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and repeated that result at the Olympic Sailing Test Event in Qingdao last year,” said Jones.

“Clearly, both his crews are on great form leading into the Beijing Games.”

Both crews will now return to Australia for a week’s rest and will then spend time in an Australian Sailing Team camp at the Olympic sailing venue of Qingdao.