Smith and Ryan Finish Worlds in 18th

Published On: 29 February 2016

WAIS sailor Carrie Smith and her partner Jaime Ryan have finished 18th at the 470 World Championships in San Isidro, Argentina.

The pair missed the medal round but showed glimpses of their potential over the course of the week, in recording three top ten finishes during fleet racing.

Australia’s top-ranked female 470 combination had the opportunity to secure selection for the 2016 Rio Olympics in San Isidro, if they’d managed a top six finish. Selection, however, remains a strong chance for the pair, with the partnership having qualified Australia a berth in the event for Rio, at last year’s World Championships.

Jaime Ryan admitted it had been a trying week in Argentina, both in terms of conditions and on-course issues.  

“It’s been a tough week for a lot of teams here, and for the race committee too as they tried their best to get in fair racing around shifty wind conditions and huge amounts of weed all week. This venue has definitely presented some unique challenges for everyone, and built up a new skill of foil-clearing in the fleet,” Ryan said.

“We had a lot of good moments in the racing and managed to get a few good results on the board, but we missed a lot of opportunities around the track and made some silly mistakes that cost us, so it’s disappointing to come away knowing we didn’t sail our best.”

The pair got back in the boat just before the 2015 World Championships after extended medical issues sidelined 2013 ISAF Youth World Champion Carrie Smith for most of last year. They secured the nation’s place on the Olympic starting line last year after finishing ninth at the 2015 World Championships in Israel in October.

“With our ongoing selection process we were feeling the pressure to post a good result at this worlds, but although we didn’t quite achieve that we have still come a long way from where we started sailing together a year and a half ago. We have learnt a huge amount from the racing here and ticked off a few of our key goals we had coming in, so we are happy to be improving and we’ll take that away as a positive,”

The second competing Australian combination of Sasha Ryan and Ella Clark finished 26th overall.

-withYachtingAus