Australian 470 champions prepare to take on world class fleet in Miami

4:57 AM Thu 21 Jan 2010 GMT

'Belcher and Page on the final day of Sail Sydney' Craig Heydon

The Australian Sailing Team's Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page are putting their 'perfect' Australian summer behind them and moving on to their next challenge, round two of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Miami.

Gold Coast based Belcher and his Sydney based crew Page finished first in every 470 men's race they started during the 2009/2010 summer, including Sail Sydney, Sail Melbourne - round one of the ISAF Sailing World Cup - and the Australian 470 Championship.

The pair was the first placed men's crew in the nine races they entered at Sail Sydney, eight at Sail Melbourne and nine at their national championship in Sorrento, Victoria, to take their tally to 26 straight race wins in just over a month.

'We had a great couple of regattas at home and we can take a lot of confidence from our results over the last month or so,' said Belcher.

Belcher and Page, along with coach Victor Kovalenko, have arrived in the United States where they will contest round two of the ISAF Sailing World Cup, the Rolex Miami OCR from January 24 to 30.

The regatta will give the pair an opportunity to see how they have progressed since their last major overseas event in England last September, with eight of the world's top ten 470 men's crews making the trip to Miami.

'While we were quite pleased with our results over the Australian summer Miami will allow us to see how far we've progressed when we come up against the best 470 crews in the world,' said Belcher. 'We'll be focusing on our racing during Miami, continuing to develop as a team and spend valuable time together in the boat.'

Upon arriving in Miami, Belcher and Page spent the first day preparing their charter boat, with the distances between Australia, Miami and Europe, together with their incredibly tight schedule, meaning they were unable to get either of their own boats to the regatta.

'Unfortunately we lost all of the first day in Miami bringing the charter boat up to scratch as it wasn't quite what we're use to, but the plan is to get out onto the water early tomorrow and start our preparations for the regatta,' said Belcher.

by Craig Heydon

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Australian 470 champions prepare to take on world class fleet in Miami

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