America’s Cup, BMW Oracle Racing piange la scomparsa di Paul Wallbank
America's CupOracle Team USAVela 30 Maggio 2009 Zerogradinord 1
America’s Cup – Valencia – E’ stato trovato morto dalla sua ex fidanzata, Paul Wallbank, ex pugile e istruttore di fitness trentasettenne che da qualche giorno era stato licenziato da BMW Oracle Racing. Il corpo senza vita di Wallbank, scoperto domenica scorsa, era all’interno dell’abitazione di Valencia che Paulie, com’era chiamato da chi lo conosceva bena, abitava da alcuni anni.
La donna, che era rimasta in ottimi rapporti con lui, ha dichiarato che Wallbank aveva trascorso il sabato giocando a tennis tavolo con gli amici e che, tornato a casa, era andato a letto presto, letto sul quale è stato trovato esanime.
Wallbank lavorava per BMW Oracle Racing dal 2006, quando ancora alla guida del team c’era Chris Dickson. Licenziato una prima volta nel 2007, era stato richiamato da Grant Davidson, responsabile della logistica e dello shore team. Divenuto famoso come allenatore di alcuni grandi pugili, era molto noto tra i manager più affermati, che erano soliti ingaggiarlo come personal trainer.
Russell Coutts, CEO di BMW Oracle Racing, raggiunto telefonicamente dal New Zealand Hearald in Austria, dov’è impegnato nella terza tappa dell’RC44 Championship Tour, ha detto: “La morte di Wallbank ci colpisce molto duramente perchè è stata inaspettata e improvvisa e perchè era molto vicino a tanti membri del team”. Coutts, tra l’altro, durante la scorsa settimana ha tenuto una videoconferenza per informare dell’accaduto tutti i membri del team e ha parlato con i genitori di Wallbank, collegati dalla Nuova Zelanda.
Il padre dell’uomo ha dichiarato che il figlio amava Valencia e stava programmando di restare in Spagna per aprire una palestra insieme a Carl Williams, olimpionico neozelandese licenziato anch’esso da BMW Oracle Racing in una recente ondata di tagli al personale. La famiglia ha comunque sottolineato che il loro congiunto aveva superato bene il trauma della perdita del posto di lavoro. Questo sarebbe confermato dagli ex compagni di squadra, che avevano visto Wallbank su di morale.
In attesa di conoscere l’esito dell’autopsia, che saranno resi noti tra circa un mese, il padre ha ringraziato il management di BMW Oracle Racing, che si è offerto di sostenere le spese di viaggio dalla Nuova Zelanda a Valencia.
MYSTERY DEATH OF AMERICA’S CUP KIWI
[Source New Zealand Herald] Grieving family, friends and former clients of Auckland fitness and boxing trainer Paul Wallbank are baffled by the healthy 37-year-old’s sudden death. Wallbank, known as Paulie to his friends, was found dead in his Valencia apartment last Sunday by his former girlfriend a week after he was laid off by the BMW Oracle America’s Cup syndicate.
Family and friends say the redundancy would not have been a major blow to the former boxing identity who helped train David Tua. He had been expecting to lose his job during a round of redundancies late last year. The latest layoffs came as the team, backed by software billionaire Larry Ellison, was downsized before moving to San Diego for the next America’s Cup.
Speaking from Austria last night, skipper and chief executive Russell Coutts said Wallbank’s death had hit the team hard. The past week had been “very hard”. “It is very, very sad because it was so unexpected and he was so close with so many members of the team.”
Last week Coutts spoke at a memorial service for Wallbank in Valencia. The service was connected by conference call to colleagues around the world and to Wallbank’s family in New Zealand.
Wallbank’s father Terry said his son, nicknamed “Energiser”, loved Valencia. He planned to stay to set up a training gym with Kiwi Olympic sailor Carl “Tiny” Williams, another Oracle member made redundant. Terry said he had spoken at length with several of his son’s team-mates in Valencia but the autopsy results would not be known for a month: “According to the guys, everything was perfectly normal. At this stage it is a mystery.”
BMW Oracle had been “absolutely marvellous” and had offered to fly the family to Valencia.
Through an interpreter provided by Oracle, Wallbank’s Spanish former girlfriend, who remained a close friend, told the family he had spent much of the day playing table tennis with friends. He returned to the apartment to have dinner, went to bed early and in the morning she found he had died in his sleep.
Wallbank, a keen sailor, joined Oracle in Spain as a trainer in 2006 during the Chris Dickson era. After Dickson left following a devastating 5-1 loss to Luna Rossa in the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup, Wallbank went too.
He was rehired by Grant Davidson, another New Zealander and operations and logistics manager for BMW Oracle‘s shore crew.
Coutts said Wallbank had accompanied Oracle members to events around the world and was well known within the international sailing fraternity. He travelled back to New Zealand with Oracle this year for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series.
Before his work with America’s Cup sailors, Wallbank was closely involved with training New Zealand’s boxing elite. He helped David Tua, Maselino Masoe, Danny Codling, Sam Leuii and Faii Falamoe working with Kevin Barry at Les Mills in Auckland. Wallbank also worked as a personal trainer to a string of high-profile businessmen – whom one executive nicknamed “Paulie’s $10 million men” – including Eric Watson and Billy Boyd. Those who trained with him say Wallbank was motivated, passionate about boxing, upbeat and extremely fit, often starting his day at 5am.
A keen golfer, cyclist and tennis player, he tackled all sports with equal enthusiasm.
Auckland businessman John Murphy, who trained with Wallbank between 1998 and 2006, said he and a group of friends would take him on holiday to resorts so they could keep up their daily training. “Pretty soon he would be running the holiday.”
