Silver success for Shaw at windsurfing World Championships
by Lindsey Bell 24 Oct 2015 19:00 BST
18-24 October 2015
Britain's Bryony Shaw hailed her silver medal performance at the RS:X Windsurfing World Championships after a 'relentless' week of racing (19-24 October) in Mussanah, Oman.
The European Champion added a second RS:X World Championship silver to her medal collection at the conclusion of an intense and physical light wind regatta, with Shaw sailing a strong final race to finish second in the medal finale and claim the second step of the women's podium.
It was as much as the 32-year-old could have asked for, with China's Chen Peina having already sealed gold prior to the medal race after a strong display all week in the predominantly light wind conditions.
The world-ranked number one Shaw held off the silver medal challenge from her Dutch and Polish rivals, and was delighted with her resilience and endurance throughout the regatta.
"This was a target event and one I wanted to peak for," Shaw admitted. "Mid way through the week I could see that it was going to be a really tough fight and come down to the medal race. It's great that I'm able to perform on medal race day, it seems to be a strength of mine, and certainly sailing on the fin now it seems my speed has really improved.
"All of those things coming together and the board speed stuff really helps when you're trying to perform at your peak regatta. It's all those hard yards put into practice."
"It was quite a relentless event really," Shaw continued, and paid tribute to the newly-crowned Chinese World Champion.
"The light wind specialists really came to the fore here. The Chinese girl was extremely impressive all week with a near immaculate scoreline in the end, especially from the penultimate day with two firsts and a second. She was coming back from average top mark roundings and then absolutely smashing it downwind. She had some huge comebacks and her physicality was really, really impressive."
Shaw described Friday's penultimate race day, in which she posted 4,5,1 to boost her into the top three, as pivotal in her regatta and was happy with the resolve she displayed across the 12 race series.
"I never had a coloured bib all week and came through on the penultimate day. It was a really solid performance from myself that day, especially winning the last race and it put me in a really good place going into the medal race. It was endurance throughout the week to show that I could win that final race even though it was still a light wind pumping race.
"It was definitely a sailor's venue as well – there were some shifts to be had and a tricky wave state so a lot of technique stuff that I'd been working on recently in the build up. My marginal sailing on the rail and downwind has shown a great improvement which helps me to be rounding in the top few at the windward mark. That's been really nice to see this week, that it's already starting to show through in the racing."
The Netherlands' Lilian de Geus rounded off the podium spots in the women's fleet, claiming the bronze medal position.
In the men's fleet, Nick Dempsey was disappointed that a solid first half of his regatta didn't continue into the second half of the week and into the gold fleet series.
Finishing 13th overall, the two-time World Champion rued 'too many mistakes', but also drew positives from improvements to his light wind racing.
"There were some good things, but a few too many mistakes," Dempsey admitted.
"I've closed the gap massively on the front runners in the light, but made too many errors which left me way back."
The British Sailing Team's Podium Potential sailor Kieran Martin finished his regatta in 17th overall and as the second u21 sailor.
Championship gold went to France's Pierre Le Coq, with China's Wang Aichen and Dutch Olympic Champion Dorian van Rijsselberge in second and third respectively.
For full results from the RS:X World Championships, visit www.rsxclass.com/worlds2015
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