Check it:
Australia Sailing Team Set Out On Road To London Sailing Gold

Well, he and Ashby had to go somewhere, right?

The thing that jumps off the page at me is, did AUS already have 49er sailors that are being displaced for a shot at London?

And, are there not qualifiers for the AUS Olympic team? Bundy's comments make it sound like he's just figuring out the boat. Hard to believe he could have won any sort of qualifying regatta against people with many more years of experience on the boat (again, unless there weren't any in that position).

Mike

Reading the whole thing.....


Men’s Two Person Dinghy High Performance – 49er
Darren BUNDOCK and Ben AUSTIN
Nathan OUTTERIDGE and Iain JENSEN (Development)

You have to think that the Aussie system of selecting Olympic Athletes makes more sense then the US trials approach. I think they count results from the major grade I events to pick their representative. The team selection is about funding.

US Sailing has to tilt the playing field at a trials to hopefully get the horse they want. The result has been numerous appeals to the USOC over fairness issues from sailors which has lead to the "OK... you guys cheat to much and you must have to have a fair due process system so you now must change the game.

The windsurfers tell me that the next selection process was to be results from three international events including the Miami OCR. Would this have been a better system then a single US Trials event if and when the cats get another shot at the Olympics.

OK Scoob... I saw that too. What does that even mean, is the decision to send Bundy not final?

Mike

Mike

I think that it's a funding thing... I think this is a decision to put Bundy on the team and not a decision to send him to the games in 2012. I believe the Aussies use a 3 international regatta competition to decide on their representative. (No all or nothing trials) Somebody outside of the Aussie funding mechanism could come in and kick butt and force the Aussies' to choose.

In the end, Bundy will still have to qualify Australia for one of the 49ner slots in the year leading up to the Olympics.

The USA has moved to a somewhat similar situation. eg the US sailing teams were reduced from 5 to (I think now) 2 teams and they have created an under 22 developmental team as well.

Since so many countries did not send athletes in sailing... our hope for an additional event in 2012 remains. Bundy could still switch back...

The interesting thing would be if he felt that his best gold medal shot actually turned out to be in the 49ner. Now that would be noteworthy!

Please don't be offended by this Mark, but the point of both of my posts was to get answers from someone who might actually know (not just guesses)...

Mike

Dont know the details, but first AUS have to qualify for a berth, which nobody have yet. The final selection is usually not done before the year of the games. It is very common to have two teams who both compete and work together.


Bundy must really be motivated when he switches classes and have a go at gold in the 49er. Good on him!
Hopefully there will be a multihull class in 2012, and at least in 2016. Who knows, perhaps Bundy will be there at the helm sailing fast as usual.

that's got to be about an equally tough skiff fleet in Oz. it will be interesting to see how he does (though I have a feeling he'll do quite well).

Mike, Mark is on the money. This is the Australin squad for funding and training purposes. They get all the support etc. If you're independantly wealthy (and Australian), there is nothing stopping you from attending all the international regattas on the qualification list. If you do and you get better overall results than the squad member you'll be off to the olympics. Australia has had examples where they didn't send the world champion because while they had one good regatta they were inconsistant across all the neceassary events.

If you want to get your ear assulted (or whatever the online equivalent is) ask Macca what you have to do to make the squad.

Beat Bundy.

I once approached Don Telford from Toll seeking to gain sponsorship for our Tornado camapign several years ago. His first question was what are you going to do to beat Bundy and Forbes. He new a little more about the sport than the average punter.... Infact he races Farr 40s fairly seriously.

To qualify for AUS funding, you must place in the top 10 of a Worlds or interest them enough to bring you on the squad as a development member recieving partial funding such as Robbie Lovig in about 2003 and Ashby / Andrew Williams did when Bundy was campaigning with Aaron Worrell.