By Ian Grant.
Queensland Academy of Sport Olympic Laser skipper Ryan Palk achieved a career best result in the open European championship contested on the cold waters of the Gulf of Finland.
The 21 year old Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club sailor who normally competes in a lightweight sailing suit on the Noosa River was forced to stack on the layers of clothing to lock out the chill factor and still managed to finish 13th in the fleet which attracted 148 entries representing 32 nations.
This was a remarkable result considering this was only his second regatta racing against many high profile skippers who have already represented their countries in the Olympic arena.
Palk has slogged out the ‘hard yards’ with extensive training sessions with the Yachting Queensland high performance sailing squad under coach Adrian Finglas and this showed he was ready to compete in his first tour of Europe and racing in the major Northern Hemisphere regattas.
He opened the 12 race championship with a maximum penalty when race officials named him among the three skippers to have broken the start.
But this steeled his competitive attitude to progressively climb back to make the cut to contest the Gold Medal round against the world’s best sailors including 2008 Olympic Gold Medallist Paul Goodison of England and Australian World Champion Tom Slingsby.
The relatively young Sunshine Coast sailor justified the expense to pursue his Olympic dream when he won the first of four medal races to eventually record a 27-15-14-6-2-2-11-1-5-19 for 13th overall.
His result is a fitting reward for the endless hours he has committed to his personal fitness both in the wet cockpit of his Laser dinghy and the sweaty muscle toning sessions in Jetts Gym at Noosaville.