3:52 AM Thu 25 Mar 2010 GMT
Young West Australian sailor Mark Spearman has finished fourth in the Byte class at the 2010 Singapore National Youth Championship, an amazing result given he had never sailed the boat before arriving at the regatta.
Mark is Yachting Australia's nominated male athlete for the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games and with competition set to take place in the Byte CII, he headed to Singapore for a taste of the boat and the local conditions.
'The Youth Olympic Games will be very challenging for me as I will compete on a Byte CII class boat. To date, I have never sailed one of these, as we don't have this class in Australia and it is very different from my Laser,' said 15 year old Mark.
'To prepare for the event, I competed in Singapore in a Byte CI which is a completely different rig from the CII on which I will be sailing in September,' he said. 'However, it was my first attempt on a Byte and I found the boat faster than a Laser 4.7 in light winds and more tippy downwind and it was great sailing in Singapore, with more wind on the first two days than I expected.'
'The regatta gave me the opportunity to meet some of the competitors from France and Malaysia who will be competing at the Youth Olympic Games. It also gave me a chance to get used to the conditions, especially the strong currents,' he said.
Mark's fourth place finish in Singapore was all the more remarkable given it was in the highly competitive Byte Gold fleet against 58 other sailors, with Mark ending the regatta with a race win and five other podium finishes, to be just four points behind first place.
Mark was put forward by Yachting Australia to be Australia's male sailing representative at the Youth Olympic Games after he was the leading eligible athlete in the Laser 4.7 class at the OAMPS Insurance Brokers Australian Youth Championships in Adelaide in January.
The boat chosen for the event, the Byte CII, is almost non-existent in Australia and after some searching and acquiring additional equipment while in Singapore, Mark is all set to train back home in Perth.
'While I was in Singapore I acquired a Byte CII rig from one of the Singaporean national sailors,' said Mark. 'My Dad videoed the setting up of the sail and I learnt as much as I could about the settings while I was in Singapore.'
'After I've competed in the Laser 4.7 World Championship in Thailand at Easter, I intend to concentrate solely on learning how to sail the Byte CII and train as much as I can. We found a hull in New South Wales, had it sent over to Perth and it is currently being fixed up so that it will be ready to sail when I return from the Worlds,' he said.
With just six months until the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore Mark is busy juggling school work and training, trying to be on the water as much as possible.
'My training routine consists of daily exercises, gym work, sailing four to five times a week, physio and theory lessons,' he said. 'It's pretty intensive but lots of fun.'
'When I'm not training, I go to school and try to catch up on homework. They gave us a T shirt in Singapore that says 'Full time sailor; part time student,' that sums it up really!'
www.yachting.org.au
by Craig Heydon
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Sailing
