MARA STRANSKY CROWNED NATIONAL WOMEN’S SAILING CHAMPION
Russell Island sailor Mara Stransky has been crowned National Women’s Laser Sailing Champion. She won the prestigious title in recent days at Devonport in Tasmania.
This follows on from her recent success at the Japan World Cup on a course that will host the Olympic Games in about 18 months’ time.
Her improved form came after an extended period of hard training with her coach Ash Brunning and the other members of the Queensland squad.
They had a couple of week-long camps out of Mooloolaba in order to emulate the wavy conditions expected out of Devonport. Mara swept all comers, winning Sail Brisbane outright; 1st woman and 3rd overall at Sail Sydney; and at Sail Melbourne 2nd female to Switzerland's Maud Jayet who came 9th at the most recent World Championships.
With these three hard fought regattas under her belt she lined up for the Nationals in fine form.
Mara saw off her opposition as the titles progressed for her to be crowned Australian National Champion. Not since 2012 has a female placed so highly in the Nationals. Mara who now has the confidence to attack other Australian Olympic contenders. Follow Mara on Mara Stransky Sailing
or Stran (@marastransky) • Instagram photos and videos
Next for Mara are the Genoa World Cup mid April, Hyere's French Olympic week late April and then the the European titles in late May.
Olympic hosts Japan will conduct the Open World titles in mid July, the Olympic test event and the World Cup round 1 in early August.
Unfortunately, Australian Sailing barely fund Mara at all and several island groups etc are looking to fund raise for her in the coming week (see Time n Tide page 2).
ISLAND SOCCER
Macleay Island was a ‘no show’ for our Australia Day game Russell v Macleay. A return date has been set for Saturday 16th February 3.30pm kick-off on the Russell Island sports oval. Please if you are a keen adult looking to join in the Sunday league, all games kick-off 9.30am, which will start next month and run to September. Come along as this will be the last chance to see if the Bay Islands have enough players for a squad of 20+ to compete this season. Junior teams and Saturday training will continue from 9.30am and hopefully Victoria Point Magic (VPM) teams may come across to play our island teams. As VPM fees are $250 a season for an hour on Saturday mornings from 8am with a Wednesday training from 5pm, so after a parents meeting they are happy to train for 2 hours each Saturday for $5 a year in the hope that the islands can get some teams formed.
Macleay island ‘after school’ soccer will be trialled on Wednesdays from the 13th February in the hope of having more children join Russell for inter island games, leading to having a mixed team ready to travel as Bay Islands United soccer teams. Like us on facebook bayislandsunitedfc or text Mick on 0401483079