Landenberger and Reffold - Australia's Up-and-Coming Stars

8:47 PM Tue 19 May 2009 GMT

'Andrew Landenberger (L) and Simon Reffold' Lynn Fitzpatrick

The Star Class has returned to Hy?res for the second time within a month. This time they are competing in the Star Eastern European Championship. Over 15 countries are represented. Competitors from as far away as Brazil, the USA and Australia are here and there are many new faces. Among the teams that have been around for a while yet are wearing new Olympic Development Squad apparel are Andrew Landenberger and Simon Reffold of Australia.

Landenberger is no stranger to the Olympic effort. In fact, he won a Silver at the Atlanta Games in the Tornado. He and Simon Reffold sailed their first regatta in a Star during Kiel Week in 2006 and sailed several regattas leading up to the 2007 ISAF World Championships in Cascais. In Cascais, Iain Murray and Andrew Palfrey qualified Australia for the Olympics, leaving little opportunity for Landenberger and Reffold to qualify as the Australian Olympic Star team for Qingdao. The two closed out the quadrennium by focusing on their family and business lives - Landenberger in Germany and Reffold in Australia.

It's a new quadrennium and they are training hard and sailing hard - apart and together. Reffold has been sailing with the fleet that has sprung up in Pittwater, Australia thanks to the efforts of 2008 Olympic Star crew, Andrew Palfrey, Peter Burton, Rob Fielding and Rob McMillan. Palfrey rounds up everyone via e-mail and provides them with tuning advice. The Pittwater fleet is a healthy, and growing mix of younger sailors coming out of Lasers and others who think the boats are cool. McMillan's 19-year old son is steering him around the course and Reffold has a 19-year old driving him. Where is Landenberger? In Germany.

While Landenberger and his family spend most of their time in his wife's home country, Germany, Reffold resides in Australia. The resources that Landenberger and Reffold have invested in their campaign are already paying off. Between Reffold's training with another skipper in Australia and the pair sailing in Miami this past season, followed by a recent training session with former Star World Champions and Olympians, Freddy Loof and Robert Scheidt, and up and coming German Star teams; they more than sense their progress.

Said Landenberger, 'It's the first time that the really good guys have invited us to join them. We've gone way up the learning curve.'

Many others are putting in strong efforts at this early stage of the quadrennium.

Watch for Landenberger and Reffold's results in the 2009 Star Eastern European Championships, Kiel Week, the Star European Championships in Kiel and the upcoming Star World Championships and Varberg, Sweden.

Story courtesy of World Regattas - www.WorldRegattas.com

by Lynn Fitzpatrick

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