Sailing: Laser World Championship 2006-Julie finishes 33rd, quite satisfied with 2006 season |29 September 2006

Before returning home Saturday September 23, three-time Olympian Julie participated in the Laser World Championship in Jeju, South Korea. This was his ninth participation in the Laser World Championship and he finished 33rd in the 64-sailor gold fleet of the Laser class. In light winds, Laser sailor Julie’s results were as follows – 26th in race 1, 18th in race 2, 17th in race 3, 20th in race 4, 11th in race 5, 41st in race 6 and 41st in race 7 for a total of 133 points.

Speaking to Sports Nation, Julie said “had the recent Laser World Championship been an Olympic qualifier, I would have qualified for the next Olympic Games in Beijing, China, in 2008.”

“I started training too late this year and I had quite a rough time getting in the groove. Since there was no Olympic qualifier this year, I used the different competitions to test some changes in my sailing techniques. I’m quite satisfied with my progress, but I still have a problem sailing in light winds and this was the case during the recent Laser World Championship. I’m still doing OK in medium and strong winds. Next year’s Laser World Championship will take place in Portugal and I’m quite familiar with this venue as I trained there earlier this year. There are strong winds in Portugal and I’m going to train hard during the off-season to be ready and in good shape for next season,” Julie told Sports Nation.

Australian Michael Blackburn, 35 won the Laser Worlds for the first time in his career with 16 points, succeeding eight-time winner, Brazilian Robert Scheidt who has since changed class.
Another Australian, Tom Slingsby, finished second with 24 points and third place went to Swedish Rasmus Myrgen with 33 points.

It must be noted that Julie, who is benefitting from an Olympic Solidarity scholarship and trains with SailCoach in France, left the country for Europe half-way into the season. He participated in the fourth edition of the International Sailing Association Federation’s (ISAF) World Sailing Games in Austria but returned home a day before the end of the competition.

He complained that “not all was in place for me in Austria and it was tough just to arrive there and compete without having trained seriously for more than four months. I hate losing and upon arriving in Austria, a number of things didn’t work as planned and I decided to abandon the competition and fly to France to train.

“I’m back home to discuss some issues about my future trips to Europe.... When was the last time I sailed in the silver fleet? I hate losing ... I was also disappointed to see sailors who normally finish below in the ranking perform better than me this time. This is because they trained hard for the competition, while I only received the scholarship in mid-April. Things need to improve in the future,” the five-time Sportsman of the Year told Sports Nation at that time.
In December, Julie is expected to train in Abu Dhabi.

G. G.