Sail-World.com : Yngling Worlds Silver Medalists reflect on result
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Yngling Worlds Silver Medalists reflect on result |
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'Krystal Weir, Karyn Gojnich and Angela Farrell AUS 59 - Yngling - Rolex Miami OCR 2008 Silver Medalists'
© Rolex/Dan Nerney
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After only eight weeks sailing together, the Australian Sailing Team’s Yngling women’s keelboat team have won a Silver medal overnight at the 2008 Yngling World Championship in Miami, a result which raises expectations for the team at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
The three person Yngling is the Women’s keelboat of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Krystal Weir, Karyn Gojnich and Angela Farrell finished with 74 points behind the defending champions Great Britain (35 points), while Ulrike Schueman from Germany claimed the bronze medal place with 75 points. One of the pre-regatta favourites and local Sally Barkow of the USA finished in fourth place. World No 1 Mandy Muller of the Netherlands finished in 13th place.
In a fleet studded with eight previous Olympic Gold Medallists, including all the female Gold Medallists from Athens 2004, Weir and her crew sailed a very calculated match racing style final Medal Race (double point race of the top 10 boats).
With no mathematical possibility of claiming gold, the Aussie trio sacrificed a chance of race victory to cover and fight their main rivals Germany and USA to claim ninth place within 4 points of Germans and thereby ensuring they secured their Silver Medal.
The 2008 World Championship is the first major international regatta for this new Yngling team who have only been sailing together for eight weeks and were only recently selected in the 2008 Australian Olympic Team.
Weir was brought into the crew as skipper following the withdrawal of the Olympic Nomination for long time skipper Nicky Bethwaite after medical tests revealed she had not adequately recovered from a total shoulder reconstruction in time for Olympic preparations. Bethwaite was severely injured in a cross training cycling accident in September 2007.
Following a disappointing 26th place in the Miami OCR lead-up regatta, the team of Weir, Gojnich and Farrell made major adjustments to sail and rig settings and with coach Adrian Finglas encouraging the team to adopt a new and aggressive starting style, their new combination clicked into gear and they started the regatta off in style, finishing the first day in second place and winning daily honours on day two. The team sailed very consistently and were never out of the top three during the eight day regatta.
Karyn Gojnich said time put in over the past two years, a sail development program and the new team combination had all come together at the event.
“The first three days were really windy and we handled the conditions well and that gave us the confidence to be at the front of the fleet and to know we could do well,” said Gojnich.
“We stayed in the top ten right through, which is what we were aiming to do – we’re trying to stay consistent and to minimise mistakes – so in the medal race it was critical we stayed with our biggest threats in the light winds that were flicking around a bit and we held our place.”
As a former Laser Radial Sailor, new skipper Krystal Weir has had a steep learning curve settling into a new boat and a team of three, but is enjoying the new challenge and the company.
“I’m new to this class, I’m learning to sail in a team rather than on my own, I’m learning to sail with a spinnaker and a lot of other new things so we weren’t results-focused going into this event at all,” said Weir.
“As a Laser sailor you do everything on your own – you sail on your own, you do tactics on your own, prepare the boat, everything on board you do yourself.
“I’ve had to learn to release some of that stuff to the crew, to have faith in them doing what they have to and to know they’ll tell me what I need to know. Sailing in a team is really all about listening to each other.”
Weir was reflective of the journey she’s taken to get to this point.
“After just missing selecting in the Radial, I was really low for a while and when Jonesy (Team Director Michael Jones) told me he wanted me to fill in for Nicky whilst she recovered, I thought that’s not really me, I just wanted to keep sailing the Radial and show everyone that they had made the wrong decision,” said Weir.
“But in the end he convinced me and I’m glad he did! I have really enjoyed the challenge of learning a new boat and a whole new set of skills, but most of all I am really enjoying sailing with Karyn and Angela, they are really good sailors and we are all getting on so well.”
Weir was also full of praise for Yngling coach Adrian Finglas.
“I didn’t know Adrian and was a little worried at first when Jonesy appointed him, but he (Jones) and Rob Brown (AST Manager, previous 18 Ft Skiff World Champion and crew of Australia II in 1983) kept telling us he was the man for the job, and they were right, he has been amazing and has taught us so much,” she said.
The Yngling team comes together from two different states and is reflective of the mix of experience and youthful talent that exists within the broader Australian Sailing Team. Skipper Weir hails from Melbourne and is one of the youngest in the Australian Sailing Team at 23; while 26 year old Angela Farrell and 48 year old mother of two Karyn Gojnich are both Sydney based.
Gojnich is a seasoned campaigner who has competed at two previous Olympic Games - Seoul 1988 and Athens 2004. With this latest result, she’s looking forward to her third Olympic experience more than ever.
“It’s a step closer to that elusive medal,” said Gojnich when asked what the World Championship silver meant for her.
“I’m really positive that our goal is achievable.”
The team will return to Australia briefly before heading off to Europe for the summer season of competition and then to Qingdao, China to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The World Championships were the Olympic qualifying event for several countries, so the Australians now know who they’ll be competing against in China.
“This year, Europe will be all about doing more sailing, more sail development and doing as much racing as possible to get used to our Olympic competitors ahead of the Games,” said Angela Farrell.
Australian Sailing Team Director, Michael Jones, said the Yngling team’s result at the World Championship was a fantastic achievement for such a newly formed team and added to Australia’s medal chances at the upcoming Olympic Games.
“This is a great result for the girls, since we put them together they have worked really hard and have never lost sight of the goal,” said Jones.
“They are also getting on really well and that’s a key factor in a three person keelboat. I’ve always known Krystal was talented and if managed well would achieve good results and the combination with Karyn and Angela brings out the best in her.
“Not only is this a great result for the girls, but its great for the whole team and further justifies the plans we have put in place and the approach we have taken.
The Sailing team were the first athletes nominated and selected in the 2008 Australian Olympic Team and are producing encouraging lead-up results across the whole team.
“With this Yngling Silver Medal coming on the back of Tom Slingsby’s Gold in the Laser last week, we have won 14 medals in either Worlds or Beijing Test Event competitions in the last seven months and we have formally been named the number one team in the world,” said Jones.
“That’s not bad considering we were twelfth in the world two years ago and we’re not finished yet, the Tornado Worlds (Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby are currently ranked number one in the world) and Radial Worlds (Sarah Blanck is currently National and Asia Pacific Champion) are coming up in New Zealand soon and I have very high hopes for both classes.
“I know the risk of peaking too early is very real, but the team are very focussed and are now a very professional outfit who are producing consistently high results and I am planning for us to carry through now and have the best games ever for sailing.”
(Sailing claimed four medals in Sydney 2000 Olympic Games - two Gold, one Silver and one Bronze)
“It’s also nice that we’re getting some acknowledgement from the wider sporting community, this is no longer a pastime and the team are no longer just sailors, they are true professional athletes in every sense of the word. Through our association with the AIS we have taken this sport in this country to a new level”
The Australian Sailing Team has again been nominated as a finalist for Australian Sport Award as the International Team of the Year and team director Michael Jones has been nominated as Sport Executive of the Year along with Head Coach Victor Kovalenko who is nominated for Coach of the Year.
by Australian Sailing Team Media
1:32 AM Sat 16 Feb 2008 GMT
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