London 2012 Olympic form guide: 470 Men

Download our 470 Men's Olympic form guide in pdf format here Competition in the Men’s 470 doublehander sets sail today at London 2012 with yet another dominant Australian team way out in front on the form going into the competition. At 40, Aussie crew Malcolm Page is not only the elder statesman of the fleet, but also the most successful 470 sailor of all-time, with six World Championship titles and an Olympic gold medal to his credit. With his original crew Nathan Wilmot, Page narrowly missed out on Olympic selection for Sydney 2000, beaten by the eventual gold medallists Tom King and Mark Turnbull. However they were picked to represent Australia in the Men’s 470 at Athens four years later, but despite being favourites heading into the that Olypmiad, they bombed finishing 12th. After two more World Championships wins en route, this they put right in Beijing, securing Australia’s second 470 Gold in a decade. For London 2012 Wilmot has retired, but Page has found another extremely capable replacement from the Australian 470 squad in Mat Belcher. With his then crew Nick Behrens, Belcher was ranked no1 in the World before Beijing requiring the management within the Australian Olympic Sailing Team to have a pleasant, but hard decision to make over who they should send to the pre-Olympics. They chose Wilmot/Page who won the Test Event and the rest is history. Since then Belcher and Page, with the integral part in their campaign played by legendary coach Victor Kovalenko, the ‘medal maker’, have won three consecutive World championships leading into London 2012, the last, in June, they won with a day to spare. Since May last year they have competed at 12 regattas, won nine and at the three they didn’t win they finished second. “When we first started campaigning together we wanted to raise the