MR360° Personality: Meet the new guys on the tour
Keith Swinton
Height: 172cm Weight: 65kg Date of birth: 27th December 1985 Residence: Gothenburg, Sweden & Perth, Australia Twitter:
www.twitter.com/jakob_swe Facebook:
www.facebook.com/blackswanracing Website:
www.blackswanracing.com.au Nickname: Keitha Superstitions/rituals: None
Photo by Gareth Cooke / Monsoon Cup Keith Swinton is no stranger to the Alpari World Match
Racing Tour, but admitted to feeling butterflies in his stomach after learning he earned a full tour card for the 2012 season. Having taken part in the Asian Match Racing
Championship and Monsoon Cup as well as several other legs on the tour, the Aussie has finally fulfilled a dream to race full time in the most challenging series of its kind this year. “Obviously we were happy and satisfied to receive the card.
Ten thoughts quickly turned to getting organised for the year. When you run your own team there is plenty to be done,” said Swinton. “We hope for a set of consistent results. In terms of our
sailing we will be looking for improvements across the season. I think we have a good chance of being right up there in the tour. We had a great year in 2011 and confidence is high.” Among the highlights of last season for Swinton was
winning the Chicago Match Cup, which put him in an elite group of sailors to have won in America. If he continues his sterling progress, more wins will be on the cards for the charismatic young skipper.
Did you have any sporting heroes when you were growing up? Yes, I looked up to sailors like John Bertrand (winning helmsman 1983 AC Australia 2) & Peter Gilmour. Also ex Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh, who was an awesome leader.
Is there any other athlete you would like to be? Maybe Roger Federer.
If not a sailor, what would you have become? I think I would have followed my father into the building industry.
Career highlight? I think winning the Chicago and Berlin grade 1 events last year, is hard to split. We also made the quarter-finals in our first tour event in Bermuda 2008, we raced Ben Ainslie which was great. We lost 3-1 but we sailed quite well, so that was a highlight.
… and the worst moment? I think missing the quarter-finals on a count back at Match Cup Sweden last year was hard. We blew so many chances in the round robin then to miss out on a tie was terrible. Losing the Warren Jones Youth Match Racing Regatta final to Torvar Mirsky in 2007 was also pretty tough especially in such close circumstances.
MATCH RACING 360° | page 26 | March 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44