Windsurfing World Cup gold rounds off dominant week for Shaw

Bryony Shaw capped off a dominant week and secured a winning end to her 2014 season with gold at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (30 November).  The Beijing bronze medallist led the women’s RS:X windsurfing event from the outset of the four day Final showcase – the first of its kind under the revamped ISAF World Cup series – with her gold topping the British Sailing Team’s tally of four medals, with victory also going to British kiteboard racer Ollie Bridge in the invitational event held alongside the Olympic Classes.

Shaw went into Sunday’s final 10-board double points medal race with a comfortable 16 point margin over the second-placed World Champion Charline Picon.  Knowing that she could finish no worse than silver, the Weymouth-based sailor controlled her French rival to finish the medal race in second place and take the overall event victory.
“I was just keeping my eye on the French girl and matching her every move, which was good fun!” said the 31-year-old of her race tactics.
“The two of us managed to get the best pressure up the first beat, rounding first and fourth – I was leading the race.  One of the Chinese girls was sailing a really good race and she took the lead after the first lap.  I maintained second all the way round and kept the French girl behind me.”
Shaw admitted it had been a difficult year, with a number of near misses in the medal stakes. But she was delighted to have ended the year as she had begun it – with a gold medal to add to her victory at the Miami World Cup regatta.
“I’m really pleased to have had such a convincing win here – it’s been a tough year in that I’ve kept missing out on the podiums.  I managed to win Miami back at the beginning of the year and now this being the end of the year, it’s nice to be back on top of the podium.  Hopefully I can take that momentum into next season.”
After a testing three months for Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre, Abu Dhabi provided a silver lining. 
The 470 Women’s pairing had been sidelined from training and competition initially for six months as Weguelin underwent treatment for a deep vein thrombosis. But with Weguelin gaining the all clear from specialist medics three months into her treatment and just two weeks before the Abu Dhabi event, the pair made the most of their competitive return to win the medal race by 21 seconds and elevate themselves into the medal spots after starting the day in fifth.
“I felt quite fired up and excited this morning. It’s just so exciting to do a medal race especially with such a stunning backdrop,” said McIntyre.
“Abu Dhabi is awesome – it’s such a nice place to sail,” Weguelin added.  
“We’ve had a good week and getting back in the boat has been great, getting back into feeling the boat and a little bit of boat handling and building up our communication. 
“We were quite tight on points going into the medal race but we sailed quite a good race to win it, which moved us up into silver medal position, so we’re very happy!”
In the men’s RS:X windsurfing event, Nick Dempsey consolidated his third place heading into the final day, finishing fifth in an incredibly tight finale to secure bronze and his second international podium finish of the year.
There was also a tense finish in the 49er medal race with an on-water protest seeing the French boat disqualified.  John Pink and Stuart Bithell managed to boost themselves from fifth into the podium spots with a third place in the medal race to leave the Emirati capital with bronze.
“We were in fifth position with every medal available to us.  We went out and attacked the race, trying to win it – that’s what our game plan was,” explained Bithell, the 470 silver medallist at London 2012.
“We didn’t manage to do that, but we had a good race and managed to make our way up to third position which was good.  We’re happy to come away with a medal to round off the World Cup year.”
Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign won the 49er medal race to end their regatta in fifth overall, with Dave Evans and Ed Powys in eighth.
Elsewhere in final day action, Lucy Macgregor and Andrew Walsh narrowly missed out on the podium spots in the Nacra 17 class, finishing fourth overall behind a clean sweep of French boats on the podium.  Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves were second in the multihull medal race to end their first international event in seventh place.
A fifth place for Alison Young in the Laser Radial medal race saw her finish in fourth overall, while Nick Thompson and Ed Wright ended their respective Laser and Finn events in seventh place.
“This first conceptual ISAF Sailing World Cup Final was a success on the water,” surmised RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park.
“There was great sailing and with 20 boat fleets the days were kept short, races started on time and there were few protests. Generally the standard of racing was good and this all bodes well for the new 40 boat Sailing World Cup format that will be introduced in Hyeres and Weymouth & Portland in 2015.
“Shoreside there is still work to do on the event infrastructure, communications, event publicity and worldwide TV coverage among other things. However, these areas will hopefully be easily addressed given longer lead times for 2015.
“I think it's fair to say a lot of teams were not sure what to expect as they arrived in Abu Dhabi, and are leaving looking forward to returning next year.”(www.rya.org.uk)