Australia’s star booster Iain Jensen could miss the first three races of the SailGP season due to a knee injury he suffered ahead of the Perth event.
Competitors lined up for the opening day of the SailGP in Perth.Credit: SailGP
The Olympic gold medalist has been told to prepare for up to eight weeks out of the water after slipping and injuring his left knee during training at Fremantle Harbor on Thursday.
Just hours before the start of racing on Saturday, Jensen was officially disqualified from the Perth SailGP, which kicks off the sixth season of high-speed sailing.
The 37-year-old left Great Britain for this campaign to sail under the Australian flag for the first time after an earlier Olympic career that produced a gold medal in 2012.
Jensen was in good spirits despite the 11th hour shot that delayed his fairytale homecoming.
“I used to joke with Tom (Slingsby, the skipper), I said ‘I’ve never missed a race because of injury or illness and I’ve sailed with you for two days and I’m out for eight weeks’,” Jensen told AAP.
“Considering it’s only a few days after, (the injury) feels pretty good. I’ve had a lot of good support from the SailGP doctors and physios.”
Jensen is still hoping to speed up his recovery so he can hit the water at the second event of the season in Auckland on February 14-15.
But if it takes the full eight weeks, Jensen will miss the event, as well as the Sydney SailGP, which takes place between February 28 and March 1.
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