End of 2017, Beginning of 2018!
So its nearly the end of 2017, this year seems to have flown by!! Its been a big year with many competitions and lots of travelling, but I have loved it.
I started the year in Miami in January and was winning the event after day 1!! l made my first ever medal race in the seniors so that was a great start! Then in Palma I had another great regatta and managed to finish 6th - this is definitely one of my best memories and I am looking forward to going back in April 2018. I then flew straight to Marseille and trained there preparing for the Europeans. Next I did the World Cup in Hyeres, I made the medal race again so was super happy with that, (although maybe getting stuck on the anchor line at the start isn't the best idea ;) ).
Competing in Miami
Just one week after that, the European Championships started - this was a tough event for me, I learnt a lot but I was absolutely gutted. We had 25 - 30 knots on the first day with big waves, due to mixture of not sailing in these conditions very much I was pretty scared! On the second day we had almost zero wind, around 4 knots and again I struggled to get off the start line - we only had 1 race - so after 2 days I was pretty far back! After these 2 days I decided I would try make the most of the situation and went training on the rest day and when the racing was cancelled due to too much wind to try and improve in these conditions! In the end I finished around 34th, I wasn't very happy and was glad to get home to recover!
Back in Weymouth - training with friends!!
I had some time off after the Europeans and did a bit of training before I was off again! This time to the World Cup final in Santander. I had a great week of racing and finished 8th Overall, I was pretty happy with this and it was super nice to win a race!!
With only a small break (2 weeks) before I went off to the RS:X Class Youth worlds (open entry) I had some fun at home, foiling, RSX training and short boarding with my friends. The Youth worlds were held in Torbole, Lake Garda. After 5 days of racing, a 60 knot storm, and some broken boards. We had 1 last race to decide the winner - the RSX class were trying out a new format, basically winner takes all. I was leading going in to the race, but I made a pretty costly mistake during the race and I ended finishing second in the race, so it was second overall for me. I was pretty upset - but it could have been worse!
The super close racing in Lake Garda
After a summer of preparation and training I was heading off to my last senior competition of the year. The senior World Championships in Enoshima, Japan. I had a great time - I went 2 weeks early so I got to look around the place a bit and did some surfing!! ;) In the end I finished 18th, and 4th Under 21, I was pretty happy with that as I had some great races, including a 3rd place! I just had 1 bad day which put me down the leaderboard a bit but I knew where I needed to improve!!
Finally just 2 weeks ago I competed in China at my final ever Youth World Championships, this is only 1 person per country. After a super tight battle with Giorgia Speciale from Italy and Ting Yu from China all week, I somehow managed to win the competition on the last reach (theres a video on the homepage of my website). It was the closest competition I have ever done and I was so happy to defend my title from 2016! It was more relief than anything else!!!
Finishing the year the way I did in China was a great ending and I hope I can keep improving and do some more great things in 2018. I will try keep you updated as much as possible throughout 2018!
PS - If you want to help me out in 2018 and be part of my year, please check out my crowdfunding page, there is a chance to have your name on the back of my board for the season!!!