Young Aussies storm into contention at World Championships Aarhus
by David Sygall 9 Aug 2018 05:59 BST
30 July - 12 August 2018
Developing 49erFX crew Natasha Bryant and Annie Wilmot flew the flag high for Australia at the one week mark of the World Championships, getting ahead of most of gold fleet as well as a brewing storm around Aarhus in Denmark.
The teenage pair moved from 7th to 2nd with scores of 2, 13 and 5 in the three contested finals races and now sit just 5 points behind leaders Tanja Frank and Lorena Abicht of Austria, with a relatively low discard score up their sleeves. Three 49erFX races are scheduled for Day 8 before the medal race on Saturday.
"We're really happy with our day," Bryant said. "It was really tricky conditions so we just tried to keep consistent and just chip away at as many boats as we could. We didn't have the greatest of starts, but we managed to work our way through the fleet and we're really pleased with how we went."
Wilmot said: "Technically, we still haven't sailed our drop yet, so I think there's not a whole lot of pressure going into tomorrow and we'll just try our best and sail as hard as we can."
The pair, who have been working this year with Australian Sailing's 49erFX coach Javier Torres – who coached the Brazilian FX crew to a gold medal at the Rio Olympics - had their first taste of a medal race at the World Cup Series event at Hyeres earlier this year and are keen to improve on that experience.
The Lasers also beat the afternoon storm, but overnight leader Matt Wearn could only manage 14, which he can drop, compared to Pavlos Kontides' 2, which saw the Cypriot World Champion leapfrog the Australian into 1st place.
A DSQ for Tom Burton for an infringement rounding a mark meant the Olympic champion had to count an earlier 27, putting him from 4th back to 5th.
Mat Belcher and Will Ryan dropped back a place to 4th in the 470. But, with only the medal race to come and 13 points separating the World Champions from the lead, anything is possible in the last showdown.
"Unfortunately for us it was another pretty tough day," Ryan said. "We're doing a lot of things right, getting good starts, getting to the first shift, but we're kind of finding ourselves this week a little bit out of sorts with the pressure.
"It's been a pretty tough venue this week and they're working us hard. But we're still in the game and I think we've learnt quite a lot. We're competitive people, so it's tough. But overall it's a positive thing for the Olympic pathway."
The 49ers were sent back to shore when the storm arrived, preventing them from racing.
"We started a race in 6 to 8 knots and then the wind got pushed away, it was a pretty crazy race, with wind coming from both sides of the course, probably 90 degree shifts," 49er helm David Gilmour said.
"We sat around for 20 minutes and then this storm came through with 25 knots and we got sent in."
Four races are now scheduled for Day 8 in the 49er. The Laser Radial competition was cut short. In the Finns, Jake Lilley scored 2 and 28 and is 16th overall, with the last race finishing in lashing rain as the storm front swept through.
Australian Team and Squad Results after Day 7:
Laser:
Matt Wearn – 7, 4, 1, 4, 3, 1 Gold Fleet 3, 9, (14) – 2nd
Tom Burton – 1, 5, 6, 1, 2, 27 Gold Fleet 11, 5, (DSQ) – 5th
Luke Elliott – (13), 1, 2, 6, 3, 1 Gold Fleet (48), 21, 29 – 11th
Mitch Kennedy – 8, 10, 22, 3, 4, 5 Gold Fleet (42), 25, 27 – 22nd
Finn Alexander – 6, 7, 5, 40, 16, 14 Gold Fleet 10, (BFD), 18 – 23rd
Laser Radial:
Zoe Thomson – 28, 15, 4, 24, 5, 30 Gold Fleet 35, (59) – 36th
Elyse Ainsworth – 21, 27, 28, 23, 22, (38) Gold Fleet 34, 20 – 50th
Mara Stransky – 27, 34, (43), 41, 41, 12 Silver Fleet 11, 5, 12 – 63rd
49er:
Will Phillips/Iain Jensen – 3, (19), 6, 1, 6, 12 – 7th
David Gilmour/Joel Turner – 5, 1, 15, 14, 2, (23) – 15th
Lachy Gilmour/Ryan Donaldson – 20, 13, 7, (26), 14, 7 Silver Fleet 2, 2 – 30th
Kurt Hansen/Harry Morton – 15, (27), 18, 18, 17, 18 Silver Fleet 6, 25 – 70th
49erFX:
Natasha Bryant/Annie Wilmot - 7, 13, (14), 1, 9, 2 Gold Fleet 2, 13, 5 – 2nd
Amelia Stabback/Ella Clark - 5, 5, 13, 12, 17, 9 Gold Fleet 19, (28), 21 – 23rd
Tess Lloyd/Jaime Ryan – (21), 20, 18, 17, 8, 15 Silver Fleet 13, 5 – 36th
Nacra 17:
Jason Waterhouse/Lisa Darmanin – 5, 4, 3, (BFD), 4, 5, 5 – 3rd
Nathan Outteridge/Haylee Outteridge – 5, 5, (13), 5, 8, 3, 7 – 6th
Paul Darmanin/Lucy Copeland – (20), 14, 5, 20, 5, 17, 20 – 29th
Conor Nicholas/Hayley Clark – 11, 31, 21, 27, (DNF), 7, 5 – 37th
Finn:
Jake Lilley – 20, 23, 6, 2, 15, 9 Gold Fleet (28), 3, 2, 28 – 16th
Oliver Tweddell – 11, 17, (24), 21, 24, 15 Gold Fleet (45), 21, 3, 14 – 28th
(Tom Slingsby) – 11, 18, 16, 17, 18, 21 Gold Fleet 13, 27, 26, (40) – 34th
Jock Calvert – (44), 24, 17, 26, 30, 25 Silver Fleet 1, 2, 2 – 48th
Lewis Brake – (34), 14, 23, 17, 30, 30 Silver Fleet 32, 6, 7 – 52nd
470M:
Mat Belcher/Will Ryan – 3, 13, 8, 4, 2, 4 Gold Fleet 1, 12, (14), 10 – 4th
Chris Charlwood/Josh Dawson – 19, 12, 10, 20, 9, 16 Gold Fleet 12, 5, (26), 6 – 15th
470W:
Nia Jerwood/Monique de Vries – (35), 16, 14, 22, 29, 24, 14 – 25th
Dana Tavener/Katherine Shannon – 27, 41, 26, 40, 41, (46), 38 – 43rd
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