Injury thwarts Iain Jensen’s Aussie SailGP homecoming
Australia’s star signing Iain Jensen may miss the first three races of the SailGP season with a knee injury ahead of the Perth race.
Competitors line up for the opening day of SailGP in Perth.Credit: SailingGP
The Olympic gold medalist has been told to stay out of the water for up to eight weeks after slipping and hurting her left knee during training at Fremantle Harbor on Thursday.
Just hours before the race started on Saturday, Jensen was officially eliminated from the Perth SailGP, which will begin the sixth season of high-speed sailing racing.
The 37-year-old had left Great Britain this campaign for the first chance to sail under the Australian flag, following a previous Olympic career that ended with a gold medal in 2012.
Despite an 11th-hour blow that delayed his return to his fairytale home, Jensen was in good spirits.
“I was joking with Tom (Slingsby, skipper) earlier, I said, ‘I’ve never missed a race through injury or illness and I sailed with you for two days and was out for eight weeks,'” Jensen told AAP.
“Considering it’s only been a few days, (the injury) feels pretty good. I’ve had very good support from SailGP doctors and physiotherapists.”
Jensen is still hopeful he can speed up his recovery to get into the water at the second event of the season in Auckland on February 14 and 15.
However, if he has to be out of action for the full eight weeks, Jensen will miss both that race and the Sydney SailGP race, which runs from February 28 to March 1.
