Rechichi and Stowell Qualify Australian Boat for London
WAIS 470 sailing partnership Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell finished their week on a high at the Sailing World Championships in Perth after claiming second place in the final race, for a ninth overall finish.
In just their third regatta together, and first World Championship campaign, Rechichi and Stowell continued their stunning form trend through the week, after a slow start initially, the pair improved each day, to be one of the most consistent by the end of competition.
The pair stormed into the medal race off the back of a tenacious final two races, where the Olympic gold medallists crossed the line third and fifth, moving them from 13th to ninth overall heading into Sunday’s final race.
Rechichi and Stowell clearly enjoyed sailing in front of their friends and family in Fremantle, with the pair fighting hard throughout the entire medal race to cross the line in second, their best finish of the week.
The top ten result has qualified Australia a position in the women’s two person 470 dinghy for the 2012 London Olympic Games and has placed Rechichi and Stowell squarely at the front of the queue to fill those places in the Australian Olympic Team.
The result is a massive achievement for the pair, considering they have only raced together for three months. Rechichi and Stowell’s final race day heroics with a third and a fifth to catapult them into ninth position and into yesterday’s medal race could well prove to be the major turning point in their career together. Had they not gate-crashed the top ten, Australia would not have been guaranteed an Olympic berth and their racing future would have been up in the air.
Instead they can now focus on London and continue to gain racing experience together as they look to add further medal success to Stowell’s gold from Sydney 2000, and Rechichi’s gold at the last Olympics in Beijing.
“It’s just terrific,” said Stowell. “It was such a far goal and it looked unachievable on the first day and to be able to just keep plugging every day and be improving every day it’s just so special to be able to crack the top 10,” Stowell said ahead of the medal race.
Rechichi said that everything came down to today’s final two fleet races.
“We knew two top fives was what we needed,” she said. “We needed to lay it on the line and put all the cards on the table and bring out all our weapons. After the first race we were really happy and knew all the points between the seven boats were pretty much equal and it was going to be a case of trying to deliver a repeat performance and we gave it everything we had.
“We were fighting for a spot in the top 10 and really fighting for potentially a place in London so it was all on today,” she said.
-with Yachting Australia