Difficult Day for WAIS Sailing Pair
WAIS sailors Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell overcame a difficult day of sailing that saw the pair disqualified from one race and another abandoned with the duo in prime position, to be seventh overall.
Rechichi and Stowell’s day was dealt a blow before hitting the water after the Australian duo was disqualified from Saturday’s final race for a rule infringement, dropping them to 11th overall.
The pair put the disappointment behind them and finished ninth in Sunday’s opening race of the day on the Nothe spectator course. They were then leading race two before it was abandoned as the breeze shifted significantly. The race was restarted with Rechichi and Stowell finishing seventh, leaving them seventh overall.
Rechichi admitted the disqualification had been a blow, but said the pair would d everything it could to continue their medal push.
“The disqualification was frustrating but it was the furthest thing from our mind out there today,” she said. “We knew what we had to do and adapted our strategy accordingly. It was the case of a few missed opportunities again and we seem to be picking up points here and there that we really shouldn’t be, there are four more races and hopefully we can nail some of them.
“It’s guaranteed that disqualification will be our drop, if we post another big score it will essentially be the end of the regatta,” she said. “It changes things in that we are now trying to make some points back and we can’t hedge our bets too much because we’ve got to start pushing up there. We’re in the game but we’re hanging on for dear life and we’re going to have to fight pretty hard to try and narrow the gap to hopefully give us a shot.”