Tough Week at the Office Still Brings Reward

On the closing day of the Laser Radial World Championships,
WA’s Zoe Thomson qualified Australia for Tokyo 2020 with her combined 213
points, just a single point and place ahead of teammate Mara Stransky who was
vying for the same outcome.

The 11-race championship, played out on Miho Bay facing
the Sea of Japan, proved tough for the Australian Sailing Team’s three
representatives – Thomson, Stransky and Elyse Ainsworth. The athletes had hoped
to finish much higher on the international ladder, but between them did enough
to secure an Olympic spot in the women’s singlehanded class at Tokyo.

“It was a super tricky event for me and unfortunately I
didn’t finish as strongly as I’d hoped,” Thomson said. “I am keen to refresh at
home and take the learnings, to come back smarter and faster. It’s cool to have
qualified the country for Tokyo, but there’s some work to be done to climb the
leaderboard in Melbourne in February.”

Stransky’s summation of her worlds campaign echoed
Thomson’s: “It was a really tough event for me in some fairly random offshore
conditions. I’m not stoked with the results on paper but I will take a
lot of value from this schooling, and a strong resolve not to let it happen
again.”

Thomson finished 41st and Stransky 42nd while Ainsworth
placed 59th from a total 111 starters representing 49 countries. Conditions
were hard going for the closing two races, an unstable offshore gradient breeze
with pressure fluctuations between 5 – 14 knots.

Rio 2016 bronze medallist Anne-Marie Rindom was named
2019 Laser Radial world champion, swooping on the final day to relegate the Rio
2016 gold medallist Marit Bouwmeester (NED) to the silver medal position and
GBR’s Alison Young to bronze.

The next event for the AST is the 470 World Championship
at Enoshima, August 2 – 9, then the Olympic test series starting August 17 also
at Enoshima, the Olympic regatta venue that will host all national
representatives in 2020.

-AusSailingTeam