Sailing to success
UNSW Commerce student Gabrielle King has won a lucrative Ben Lexcen Sports Scholarship, allowing her to continue her academic studies while defending her sailing world titles.
Published on the 11 Apr 2008
Gabrielle King is a talented all-rounder. The Triple A scholar is also one of seven Ben Lexcen scholars and has just won a major sailing award.
The talented sailor has been named as one of the new recipients of the lucrative Ben Lexcen Sports Scholarship, which is awarded to elite athletes commencing study at UNSW. The scholarship provides $5000 worth of financial and personal support and a mentoring program for each scholar to provide flexibility between study and sporting commitments.
Gabrielle won the 2008 Women's Laser Radial Youth World Championships two weeks ago in New Zealand, and took out the Volvo Sailing ISAF Youth World Championships in Canada last year. Apart from defending her titles Gabrielle aims to progress to a senior competition level, and compete in the 2012 London Olympics.
The scholarship, in its 20th year, is named after the late sailing legend Ben Lexcen, who represented Australia at the 1972 Munich Olympics and won six National Sailing Titles throughout his career. He won accolades for designing the 'winged keel' that played a major role in Australia's victory in the America's Cup in 1983.
Gabrielle, who is studying Commerce at the Australian School of Business, was selected for the scholarship on the basis of her sporting achievements and academic merit.
The other 2008 Ben Lexcen scholars are: Ben Miller - Civil Engineering; Rosamond Kember - Architecture; Edward Carroll - Commerce; Michael Janov - Mechanical Engineering; Jeffrey Skinner - Aviation; Luke Overs - Arts/Education.