In my experience, the U21 Worlds often come down to the last day. This year in Split, Croatia, they came down to the last day more so than ever with light winds due to unseasonably warm temperatures plaguing the event from day one. After 5 days of the event, the fleets had only completed two races each early in the morning.
The final day arrived with a cold and rainy breeze from a new direction of southeast. Three races were completed under stormy skies in 15-20 knots of wind. I had strong starts and gave it my all, knowing it all came down to one day. In the three races, I scored notably consistent finishes of 12, 18, and 13. After dropping my 36th from day one, this left me with a 10, 12, 18, and 13 for 53 points and a 20th place finish overall. This is a huge result for me, improving vastly from 67th last year and a fantastic finish to my age group career.
I’d like to thank everyone who supported me on the road to achieving this result. Special thanks to Chris Cowan my full time laser coach these past few years. Under your guidance I have continued to make consistent progress towards my goals. Thanks also to Greg Lewandowski for your strength and conditioning expertise, and to Chris Hewson for support as event coach.
Of course, I wouldn’t be able to be doing any of this without the great support from donors, my parents, or PCYC, thank you.
For the next little bit, I will be focusing on fitness and finishing up the rest of this semester of university before resuming on water training again in Florida this December in preparation for Miami World Cup in January and my first Men’s Worlds in Melbourne, Australia, in February 2020.