Australia will bring three Olympic champions and one silver medallist from the London 2012 Games to compete in the Rio 2016 sailing test event in August. The Australian Olympic Committee announced the line-up today (July 15) for the competitions that will take place on Guanabara Bay.

The Aquece Rio International Sailing Regatta 2015 will be staged between 15 and 22 August, with boats setting off from the Marina da Glória venue that will host the Olympic and Paralympic sailing competitions in 2016. It follows on from the success of the first edition of the event, which was also the first Rio 2016 test event, in August 2015.

“The Rio 2016 Games are just over a year away and the test event will be an important milestone on our team’s preparations,” said Yachting Australia’s performance director Peter Conde. “We are in a good position at the moment and have a strong mix of Olympic medallists and new comers who will contest the test event. We’ll have a couple of extra crews with us training in the lead up to the regatta, which will provide everyone with a valuable opportunity to understand the Olympic waters.”

Australia will send 10 sailors to compete in six of the 10 Olympic classes. London 2012 gold medallist Mat Belcher and Will Ryan will compete in the men’s 470 class, while London 2012 champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen will race in the 49er competition and Jake Lilley will enter the Finn event. Tom Burton will contest the Laser races, while Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin will double up in the Nacra 17, and London 2012 silver medallist Olivia Price and Jaime Ryan will join forces in the 49erFX.

“For all of us, everything, every day we train, every minute and hour, weeks, months, years, it’s all about the Games,” said Belcher. “The regattas we do give us the opportunity to test things where we need to test, to benchmark ourselves, so that throughout the cycle we know where we are at and what we need to work on. And hopefully it will all come together when we need it – at the Olympics.”

At last year’s world championships, Australia earned places in six of the nine Olympic classes they hope to contest in Rio. They will be represented in all six of these events at August’s test event. In 2015, they aim to qualify in the three remaining classes: women’s 470, Laser Radial and RS:X women’s windsurf.