Rau Siblings To Be Coached By 4-Time Olympian

Sailing siblings Ajay and Rohini Rau are out to do the unthinkable. While the CommonWealth Games and Asian Games are around the corner, London Olympics 2012 is all that there is on their mind. Rohini blogs on iSport and this time they have a 4 times Olympic sailor coaching them.

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Allan Julie is a Four times Olympian Laser Sailor from the Seychelles. He has been coaching for the last 9 years and in 2009 he turned full time coach. Within a year of becoming a Laser Radial Coach at SailCoach, he was instrumental in helping his sailors win many medals. Including the first international bronze medal ever to be won by an Indian woman (Rohini Rau) in an Olympic Class (Izola Spring Cup in Slovenia in April 2009) and the best position secured by an Indian ( Ajay Rau) at a World Championship in the Laser Radial – 15th (Men’s Laser Radial Worlds in Japan in August 2009).

Even though he is new to coaching, he has over 20 years of sailing experience having started competing at the age of 12. His first Olympic Games were the 1998 Olympics in Atlanta where the Laser Standard was included for the first time as a category in Yachting.

A Native of Seychelles, he was supported by the International Sailing Federation and Olympic Council under the Olympic Solidarity program. It was a tough journey but filled with many wonderful experiences. He feels it is now time to give back to young sailors who might one day know what it is like to sail at the Olympics. His knowledge and skills are far superior to many. He was once ranked 15th in the World and was the training partner of Vasilij Zbogar from Slovenia who won Bronze and Silver at the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

Allan being a good friend of my brother Ajay Rau decided to visit India. Allan and Ajay have been sailing the Laser circuits in Europe, Australia and New Zealand together with SailCoach since 2005. This is his first visit to India and so far he is enjoying every minute of it. “I would never drive here. If I do it will be at 10 miles per hour”, says a beaming Allan on his first day out on Chennai roads. We might see a lot of Allan, as he may be offered a position as Head Coach for the Army Yachting Node (AYN) in Mumbai until the Asian Games 2010. Right now he is here to coach Ajay and me for the upcoming National Selection Trials to be held in Chennai from January 20 – 24, 2010.

This selection trial will decide who will represent India at the Asian Sailing Championships and the Asian Games 2010 in the Laser Radial Class. Ajay is home after being away for nearly a year as he studies at the University of New South Wales, Sydney where he has been given an Elite Athlete’s Sports Scholarship. He recently became the first Indian to compete in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart Open Ocean Race as a crew member on ‘MERIT” – Volvo 60. The team finished 19th and 5th in their cruising division. Ajay is just happy to have been part of this epic race and come back home in one piece. He says that it was the race of his life and it was simply awesome!

“This will be the first time I will be racing against my brother who is 15th in the World in the Laser Radial. I am campaigning in this class for the Olympics in 2012. So it will be exciting to know who the better sailor is among the two of us… We will see if it is sibling revelry or rivalry!” Stay tuned for the results…