11:13 PM Mon 18 Jan 2010 GMT
Australia's Women's Match Racing Squad are set to have a pair of Greek goddesses willing them to victory as they continue to campaign for Gold at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The squad recently christened two new Elliott 6 Metre boats, purchased by the Australian Institute of Sport, with Artemis and Athena the newest members of the Yachting Australia fleet.
'As a squad we wanted the boat names to reflect people and attributes we admired and wanted to emulate,' said squad member Rayshele Martin.
'Artemis was the greatly venerated goddess of the hunt, in Greek mythology Artemis was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrow. Our squad is on the hunt for Olympic Gold, we are constantly hunting for boat speed, better techniques and sometimes, on the race course, our opponents.'
'Athena was considered goddess of wisdom, war, strategy, and skill. She was also the protector of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour. Each of the attributes embodied by Athena are attributes that must be reflected in a strong match racer, but also any athlete striving to represent their country at the Olympic Games,' said Martin.
The Australian Women's Match Racing Squad has been training hard across the Australian summer and are now en-route to Miami where two crews will contest the second round of the 2009/2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup beginning on January 24.
'The new boats have had a thorough work out in a variety of conditions over the last three months, and have generally stood up well to the rigors of match racing and drill work,' said Australian Women's Match Racing coach Dayne Sharp.
'Most countries that are campaigning Women's Match Race teams now have the new Elliott 6's so it has been very timely for our squad to get some sailing time in preparation for the Miami next week and then the European program starting mid March,' said Sharp. 'The new Elliott 6's have some small but significant sailing characteristics compared to the original Elliott 6 so it has been nice to work these out.'
'The Australian Women's Match Racing Squad has come off an intensive six week training block, working on the small things that can make winning differences around the race track. There have been many areas of technique and skill that have been worked on and now it is time to move into the regatta phase.'
'2010 will be an interesting year on the international circuit as Olympic medalists, former Olympians, World Champions and new teams compete to widen their knowledge of match racing and of sailing the Elliott 6,' he said.
Australia's two entries in Miami will be skippered by current Women's Match Racing World Champion Nicky Souter and Lucinda Whitty with Stacey Jackson and Rayshele Martin sailing alongside Souter while Jessica Eastwell and Amanda Scrivenor will race with Whitty.
The second round of the 2009/2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup event will feature a full complement of 24 Women's Match Racing entries representing 17 countries. The regatta is a who's who of Women's Match Racing with seven of the current top ten skippers competing, including Australia's Souter at number four.
www.yachting.org.au
by Craig Heydon
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Manly, QLD
