Kiwis Begin Sail Sydney With A Bang And Belcher

Sailing Team Australia star Mat Belcher admits that he and his partner Will Ryan are not in the swing of campaigning yet for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but fresh training arrangement with two Japanese crews has improved the performance of duo to a new level, after they gave the demonstration on the first day of Sail Sydney on Sydney Harbor.

Ryan and Belcher were one of the standouts for Australia on the day that concluded with the crews of New Zealand leading in three of the seven Olympic classes. Sailor pair, who grabbed the silver medal at the Rio Games last year, magnificently closed out both their 470 races to assert their dominance over the fleet of 12-boat. However, in close competition were Naoya Kimura and Doi Kazuto, and Kimihiko Imamura and Daichi Takayama, who have joined Ryan and Belcher in a training alliance believes the parties will work to the benefit of Japanese and Australian 470 sailing.
The seven-time World Champion and gold medalist at London in 2012 said Belcher said, “These crews are new partnerships both and they are very motivated, receiving very good supporter and the best things is they have got one goal and that is – Tokyo,”.

“Talk about what benefit we will be getting with this partnership, then for us to have them is phenomenal. It is very mutual and I am really excited for that strength to expanding within the group of Australia. When we ahead to Europe, we know we will have that level of training, that will set the benchmark for many of our young Australian sailors to reach.

“Now, we need trusted training partners. All we need is, to be able to push and for that we have to have a lot of trust within the group.”