Oakville’s own Liam Bruce and James Juhasz are setting sail off the coast of Adelaide, Australia this week at the ILCA 7 World Championships with the hopes of securing a spot at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games this summer.
The ILCA 7 World Championship, from Jan. 26 to Jan. 31, marks the third of four opportunities where Bruce and Juhasz will be able to earn a spot to represent Canada in the ILCA 7 class of sailing at the Olympics this summer.
To earn a spot in the Olympics, sailors need to finish among the top seven competitors who represent countries that have not already qualified for the upcoming games.
Liam Bruce started organized sailing at the age of 10, joining the Collingwood Sailing Club before moving to the Bronte Harbour Yacht Club in high school to complete his CanSail levels and joining the Ontario Sailing Radical Team in 2014.
Bruce moved onto the Ontario Sailing Laser Standard Team in 2017, while also returning to his home club, the Port Credit Yacht Club. At his last competition at the ILCA North American Championship at the 2023 US Open Sailing Series in Long Beach, California, Bruce placed 11th.
James Juhasz started sailing at the young age of seven after joining the sailing school at the Bronte Harbour Yacht Club and joining the Bronte Harbour Laser Race Team later in life at the age of 12.
At the age of 15, Juhasz joined the Ontario Sailing Team and raced with them for several years before now representing the Oakville Yacht Squadron since 2017. At his last competition at the Sailing World Championships in The Hague, Netherlands in 2023, Juhasz placed 103.
Canada didn’t qualify for this class of sailing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, marking the first time since ILCA 7 was first introduced as an Olympic game in 1996, that Team Canada was unable to send an athlete to the Olympics in that sailing class.
Good luck Liam and James! All of Oakville is rooting for you!