Outteridge and Jensen named AIS Team of the Year

Iain Jensen and Nathan Outteridge with Professor Peter Fricker after winning the 2009 AIS Team of the Year Award

Making their achievements even more remarkable is the fact that the pair only started sailing a 49er together at the start of the year.

 

Outteridge arrived in Canberra straight from Busan, Korea, where he was a finalist for the 2009 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award the evening before.

 

“Being named AIS Team of the Year is a major achievement for Iain and I,” said Outteridge. “All of the nominees were worthy of the award and we were thrilled to make it two years in a row for sailing following the success of our Gold medalists in 2008.”

 

“To win an award like this after only six months competing together on the water is impressive and it says as much about the team around us as it does about us. This award came about through the work of our coach Emmett Lazich and the four other Australian 49er crews that we’ve worked closely with throughout the year and will continue to work with on the way to London 2012.”

 

“Since I first started with the AST in 2006 our relationship with the AIS has been growing stronger and stronger every year and now not only do we have access to the sports medicine, strength and conditioning and other associated areas but we’re able to work closely with the technology departments to use their knowledge and skill to develop equipment and further our sport which makes a difference in such a competitive environment,” he said.”

 

Though the pair has only spent limited time together aboard a 49er they are no strangers to each other, having won a Gold medal as a team at the 2004 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships.

 

“Obviously to win an award like this in just my first year in the AIS is incredibly special,” said Jensen. “I certainly didn’t expect it and it’s a great honour.”

 

“But we can’t rest on our success as we’re straight back into training, preparing for the 2010 49er World Championship in the Bahamas in January as we aim to defend our title,” he said.

 

Outteridge and Jensen’s coach, Emmett Lazich, was nominated for the AIS Coach of the Year Award, with 2009 the second consecutive year that his partnership with Outteridge has resulted in World Championship Gold.

 

Lazich’s nomination was recognition for the tireless work he puts in with not only Outteridge and Jensen but all of Australia’s 49er crews as they strive towards Gold at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

 

2008 Beijing Olympic Games representative Ben Austin received the AIS Vocation Award, recognising the tremendous amount of work he has put in to have a career as a physiotherapist while also training and competing in Australia and overseas. Austin’s diligence and time-management skills have allowed him to have great success both on and off the water.

 

A number of Australian Sailing Team athletes received Five Year AIS Scholarship Recognition Awards, including Mathew Belcher, Jessica Crisp, Tessa Parkinson, Elise Rechichi and Tom Slingsby.

 

The Australian Sailing Team has had great success at the AIS Awards in recent years, taking home the Program of the Year, Coach of the Year and Team of the Year awards in 2008.