Shaw hopes to shine in the sunshine state
Written by RYA | 29 January 2015
Shaw extends lead in her bid to defend Miami World Cup crown
Defending champion Bryony Shaw extended her lead at the halfway stage of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami on Wednesday (28 January), with British Sailing Team crews well placed across the 13 Olympic and Paralympic Classes after the third day of competition.
Shaw, who won the 2014 edition of the season-opening regatta, added two race wins and a second to her scorecard today to stretch out a 17 point lead in the women’s windsurfing class with three days still to run.
She’s one of five British boats to top the standings heading into the second half of the regatta, with Giles Scott and Megan Pascoe maintaining their leads in their respective Finn and 2.4mR Paralympic classes, and 470 European Champions Luke Patience-Elliot Willis and 49er pairing John Pink-Stuart Bithell advancing into pole position through their efforts on the water on Wednesday.
In spite of her commanding position at this stage of the regatta, the Olympic bronze medallist Shaw feels there’s room for improvement looking ahead to the rest of the week.
“It’s strange, it didn’t feel like a perfect day out there. I made a lot of mistakes actually,” the 31-year-old admitted. “It was really shifty and puffy and I think it was my awareness, especially on the downwinds, that really pulled me through.
“I made a couple of silly calls by going a bit too extreme at the start so I had to make some pretty big comebacks today.”
With a gold medal at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi, a gold medal on the Rio 2016 waters just before Christmas, and another victory in the warm-up regatta to this week’s World Cup a fortnight ago, Shaw feels confident about her present form and hopes to continue in that vein this week.
“I feel like this is a momentum from winning in Abu Dhabi at the end of last year and the event we had in Rio. It’s nice to come out here and put on a good show.
“I really feel like 2015 is my year and it’s important for performance. I want to try and be selected for the Games and win a medal in Rio, so I need to be performing at that level now.”
Giles Scott posted 6,9 from his two races today to keep Australia’s Jake Lilley at arm’s length in the Finn class, while John Pink and Stuart Bithell were happy with their day’s efforts in men’s 49er skiff event – and their progress as a relatively new team in this highly competitive class.
“Racing today was the first day of gold fleet so slightly tough competition,” explained Bithell, 2012 Olympic silver medallist in the 470 class.
“We were on a race course which as slightly closer to the land, just underneath the city of Miami so it was pretty wacky out there, with some big shifts and big differences in the pressure. It was quite hard work. We were on it and we had a good day with three solid counting results.”
“Myself and John have been sailing for a year now and it feels like we’re coming together a bit,” continued Bithell, who alongside Pink finished as the top British crew in the class at the Santander World Championships.
“We’ve got a new coach on board, Ben Rhodes, who’s been really good for us to help build our consistency with a bit of experience and it’s all going well.”
“I feel like I’m really getting to grips [with the 49er] now. It’s been quite a lot of hard work and I’ve caught up with the boat physically – I was a little bit behind the curve – but it’s really good fun. It’s a great class with some great, great sailors. It’s good to be out there racing the top guys.”
Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign are poised in fourth in the 49er event with fellow British pairing Dave Evans and Ed Powys in sixth. A fifth and a race win from their two races helped Luke Patience and Elliot Willis reclaim the yellow jerseys in the 470 Men’s fleet heading into Thursday’s fourth day of competition, and like his former 470 crew Bithell, Patience is content with their efforts on a testing day on Biscayne Bay.
“We had a good day – some big pull backs actually. It’s not happening from the start, we’re picking it off bit by bit,” the Scotsman admitted.
“I think it’s just about racing your race. It’s easy to get caught up in the fleet and try to herd and shepherd things, but it’s not that style of day.
“The challenge really is making sure that your boat’s going fast, that you’re comfortable with the lane you’re in and you just light up the burners and go, go, go. I think we effectively just did that today and if you do that for an hour, which is what the race is, you find yourself migrating towards the front of the fleet. We did that for two races and have come away with a good day.
“We really haven’t picked up much of a discard yet so I’m happy with where we’re at. It’s the halfway stage, loads of racing yet to go and of course if we make it, it’s the medal race as well.”
Hannah Mills-Saskia Clark and Sophie Weguelin-Eilidh McIntyre continue their push at the front of the 470 Women’s fleet, maintaining their overall second and third positions at the halfway stage, while Nick Dempsey enjoyed a better day than his key rivals on the RS:X men’s course to progress to overall second.
Just one point separates the 2012 silver medallist from France’s Thomas Goyard in first and Dutch Olympic Champion Dorian van Rijsselberge in third.
“It was a tricky day,” said the 34-year-old. “This is the third day of this offshore 12-16 knots. I had three really good comebacks – I was kind of scrabbling around in the middle of the fleet but got an 8,8,3 which I think was pretty solid compared to the rest of the guys at the front.”
A race win rounded off Nick Thompson’s day on the Laser course to see him into overall second just a point behind Australia’s Matt Wearn, while there’s an equally tight battle developing in the Paralympic 2.4mR class with Megan Pascoe having a one point edge over teammate Helena Lucas and Norway’s Bjornar Erikstad.
The Paralympic Classes conclude their regatta on Friday, so there are just two days left to make a mark. John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas fell foul of a large wind shift and then a motor yacht disrupting their race to see their overall lead whittled away on Wednesday. They’re now in second, tied on points with the first-placed USA boat, while the SKUD pairing of Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell are currently third.
Nacra 17 pairing Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves are in second place on countback from the Italian duo Bissaro-Sicouri, Alison Young pulled back to ninth overall in the Laser Radial class while Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth are currently tenth in the 49erFX.
Racing continues until Friday 30 January for the Paralympic Classes, with the final medal races for the Olympic Classes on Saturday 31 January.
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