Monash sails to Silver at International Top University Regatta in China

Monash’s sailing team has taken a typhoon in its stride and returned to Australia with a silver medal in the International Top University Regatta (ITUR) in Qingdao, China.

The Monash crew of five competed against 11 other teams from universities around the world, including Cambridge and Oxford University, University of California, Berkeley, and Melbourne University. 

The winning team, one of three from China, had just returned victorious from the Asian Sailing Championship, and defeated the Monash crew by just one point.

The ITUR was held in mid-August at the sailing venue of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The event was initially intended to involve four days of racing, but competition on two of the days was called off due to high winds during the typhoon.

Jack Lloyd, Ben Gray, Tom Trotman, Sam Danks and 

Jack Lidgett (L-R) performed admirably against tough 

international competition. Photo: supplied. 

Team captain Tom Trotman said the typhoon was unfortunate timing for the Monash team.

“We lost by one point to [China], and because they sail the boats all the time, at the start they were quite a lot better, but the more races [we did] we were kind of catching them, and then we beat them in two out of three of the last races,” he said.

“We were just getting better and better, it seemed.”

Although the boys all have lots of sailing experience, they had never sailed previously as a team or in J/80 boat used for the competition in China.

Tom said the crew improved rapidly as everybody worked out their roles and adjusted to the competition.

“After the typhoon there were some big waves rolling around. The way we set up the boat had to change. We needed more power in the sails to get over the waves,” he said.

“It was just really interesting because we’ve never really sailed in the ocean too much.”

Monash leads the fleet of 12 at the ITUR.

Photo: supplied.

The 2019 ITUR is the first time a Monash team has entered the competition.

Tom said a highlight of the event was the “massive” opening ceremony.

“I’ve been lucky enough to compete overseas before, in the last year I was in Europe and then America. But it was nothing like China, just the scale… like for instance in the opening ceremony they had all government officials there, and they had traditional dancing. There was probably about a thousand people there,” he said.

“They had a whole city about the size of Melbourne CBD, maybe even a bit bigger, all lit up with the Regatta name across it, and all sorts of billboards and stuff. It was just crazy.”

Tom and ITUR teammate Ben Gray will be heading to the UK in September for the 2019 Global Team Race Regatta.

Good luck boys, and congratulations on the achievement in Qingdao!

Written by Nell O’Shea Carre, Media Coordinator.