The Australian Sailing Team’s 470 men’s crew of Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page (both AIS scholarship holders) head into the start of today’s 470 World Championships in The Hague fresh from their recent victory in round six of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Germany.
 
Belcher and Page’s win was their first major international success as a team and came on the back of a second place finish at round five in Holland, with the pair sealing the 2009/2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup 470 men’s title with a round to spare.

“Coming into the Worlds we couldn’t ask for anything more,” Page said.

“At the start of the year we were aiming to win the overall World Cup and take victory at a major overseas regatta and we’ve achieved both of those.”
 
“The win in Kiel gave us some confidence as it was our first major regatta win as a team and as we work towards London 2012 it’s something we hope will become more common.”
 
After finishing fifth at last year’s 470 World Championships in Denmark Page and Belcher are keen to move further up the leader board this year.
 
“We said a long time ago that we’re aiming for a medal here and it’s still very much a possibility,” Page said.

“We feel that there’s nobody out there with more potential and as we spend more time in the boat our confidence continues to rise.”

“There are going to be plenty of strong crews on the water this week but our confidence is high and we’re really looking forward to the challenge before us.”