Creating waves
Three students from Wesley’s Glen Waverley campus are excelling in sailing. Casey Bates, Year 9 and Year 11 twins, Laura and Hayden Harding, have each (and collectively) achieved some fantastic results recently.
Laura has been accepted into the Victorian Institute of Sport sailing program for 2016/17. This is an incredible achievement which should help guide her to future success, with the Institute now managing her program. Laura and her crew member were also placed second overall and named the first female crew in the State 420 Championships, held in March.
Laura and Hayden, now 16 years of age, both began sailing when they were seven years old and were “hooked” from the start. Casey started sailing when he was just six years old in a one-person sailing boat known as a minnow. At 15, he is now sailing in the International 420 class (a two-person boat) with Hayden. All three have grown up around sailing, spending every summer in Blairgowrie and representing the Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron.
Laura spends on average about eight hours a week on the water and the boys train on water four to five times a week for two to three hours at a time. All three have additional fitness and strength training programs. In 2015, Laura and Hayden teamed up, with the pair winning the Queensland Youth Week and also coming an impressive 13th in the Under 17 division at the 420 World Championships in Japan.
Laura idolises 20-year-old sailor, Tess Lloyd, who underwent brain surgery after sustaining a major head injury after a collision with a wind surfer four years ago. Proving to be a huge inspiration for Laura, Tess has since had to learn how to speak and walk again and was back on the water ten months after her accident – she is now competing for a spot at the Rio Olympics. Hayden’s idol is Olympic sailor Malcolm Page, who he has met on many occasions and describes as “a great sportsman”.
Both Casey and Hayden agree that to do well in sailing in a two-person boat, you have to have the same goals, be friends who can work together on the boat, and both be prepared to put in the work required to succeed. “Sometimes it can be hard to find the right partner, but for Casey and I ”says Hayden, “we have been friends since we were really young and our families have been friends for a long time, so we get along really well both on and off the water”.
We congratulate these three intrepid sailors on their achievements so far and wish them all the best, both on and off the water.
