The Australian sailing team’s Tom Slingsby will be aiming for his third consecutive Nautel Laser World Championship victory when racing gets under way in Halifax, Canada today.

Slingsby, who represented Australia at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, will spearhead a strong Australian line up of 10 boats in the 170 competitor fleet. The Australians have spent the last week training on the water in Halifax.

‘So far my preparations for the Worlds have been good,’ said Slingsby.

‘We’ve had nice sea breezes each day at about 12–14 knots and some great training. For the last week we’ve had about 60 plus boats sailing each day so the training is intense.’

Slingsby has just come off a good result at the European championship where he finished second, behind Paul Goodison.

‘I realised that Paul was sailing on another level to us over there and basically I have been training harder in order to bridge that gap before we start racing on Thursday,’ Slingsby said. 

‘I feel like I am sailing well now but there are ten guys out there who have the ability to win here and it’s just going to be who sails the best come the last two days.

‘I think I am sailing better than two weeks ago in Sweden and if I sail well I could be a factor come the last day. Obviously Australians have won the last three Laser worlds with Michael Blackburn in 2006 and myself 2007 and 2008, so I’ll try my hardest to keep that trend going.’

Slingsby was joined at the Laser European Championship in Sweden by three Australian Sailing Development Squad (ASDS) sailors, Tom Burton, Ryan Hannan and James Burman, and all three will be competing in Canada.

Also representing the ASDS will be Ashley Brunning, Ben Gunther and Todd Hughes. They will be joined in Canada by fellow Australian’s Jake Flintoff, Ashley Lloyd and Oliver Tweddell.

Racing gets under way in Halifax on Thursday 20 August with the 2009 Nautel Laser World Champion crowned on Wednesday 26 August.