Shaw reflects on 2013 season after Qingdao World Cup 

Windsurfer Shaw pleased with 2013 season in spite of sixth at Qingdao World Cup

Olympic bronze medal-winning windsurfer Bryony Shaw says she’s happy with her 2013 progress, in spite of finishing empty-handed at her season-ending regatta in Qingdao, China.  

Shaw finished sixth at the ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta at the same venue where she won her Olympic bronze five years ago, unable to master the conditions early on in the six-day event.  

Renowned as a light wind location, this week’s regatta at the eastern Chinese venue displayed up a variety of conditions, including gusts of 37 knots which ruled out any racing on Tuesday’s second day of competition.  

After a difficult first two days, Shaw fought back to remain in contention for the podium spots heading into Saturday’s final day, but a third in the medal race wasn’t enough to close the gap on her RS:X rivals.  Gold and silver went to China’s Peina Chen and Jiahui Wu, with Israel’s world bronze medallist Maayan Davidovich rounding off the podium in third.



“It’s been up and down,” admitted the 30-year-old Shaw, who was the only British sailor to compete in Qingdao.

“I had a really bad first couple of days with some crazy sailing – I didn’t feel like I was too much in control of what was going on.  Then we had some onshore wind and I made a first and second and then I had [another] a solid day, but I think I made too many mistakes in the first half of the regatta.”  

Shaw confessed that she had fond memories of her 2008 triumph while revisiting the Olympic Sailing Centre this week.  

“It was nice sailing past the wall and all the memories of the crowds there, my mum cheering me on in the medal race.  It’s fun to be back here and racing again.”  

“It’s been a decent year,” she continued.  “Silver at the Worlds was the highlight and then winning the Open Europeans - the two major events I really managed to smash so I’m really happy with that, and to finish the year as world number one.

“I’m hoping to have a good rest now after this competition, and some good winter training with my coach and my training partner, and go into next year.  

“We want to target Santander – we did some time there at the Test Event – and also Rio.  Both venues are different but have similar qualities like the current and the light winds, so I think we need to train in both and get our heads round it.”

Click here for full results from the ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao

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