Imagine you are one of the top Laser sailors in your country. You qualify for the World Championship and head off to the Worlds in Canada full of hope. After a week of all kinds of weather, some good days, some not-so-good days, the championship is over and it's time to head home. You did OK but perhaps not as well as you might have hoped. How do you feel? Let down? Disappointed? I guess so.
That's very much the feelings expressed by our four bloggers at the Laser Worlds today.
A few weeks ago Clay Johnson won the US National Championship. In his first three races at the Worlds he scored 2,3,3. But then the protest committee threw out that third race, he had a BFD in the resail, his request for redress was filed too late... and he eventually finished in 33rd place. In Last Day of Laser Worlds Clay admits to feeling "slightly disappointed" with his results. But hey, he's still US champion, he was the top USA sailor at the Worlds, and I'm sure he knows what he needs to work on to raise his game up to being among the leaders at future world championships and even the Olympics. Good luck Clay!
The title of Ashley Brunning's post sums it all up: Final Day, World Titles ‘20 place slide to finish! damn’. Sounds as if allowing a second discard score let a bunch of other sailors jump in front of Ash in the rankings. Even so, 36th place and second Aussie at the Worlds behind the legendary Tom Slingsby ain't too shabby. Training to sail a Laser at this level is pretty much a full-time job and, like many others, Ash is now thinking about how he is going to make the money to support his efforts. Right now he says he could do with a camping holiday up the coast with his girl. He's earned it. Well done Ash!
The top Laser sailor from the Dominican Republic, Raul Aguayo, sailed in the silver fleet and finished in the middle, so effectively half way down the whole championship fleet which is his best performance in a Worlds to date. As he says in PROGRESO..., "No está mal." Not bad indeed Raul.
Colin Cheng from Singaore says in honeymoon's over, "this laser worlds was one of the toughest things i've ever done." Colin, the only sailor from Singapore at the Worlds, finished a few places behind Raul in the silver fleet. I like Colin's blog; it has a different style from any other sailing blog I've followed and his personality shines through. I hope he continues to keep us informed via the blog of his future sailing adventures. Colin sums up his current feeling by saying, "i'm longing to get home and sink my fingers into the fretboard and drift into a minor-induced heaven."
2 comments:
The post title and that photo immediately had me thinking ... Is Colin playing "Stairway to Heaven"? That song, especially the first part when it's all acoustic, is one of my favorites.
Hahaha i found this so funny when you wrote it Tillerman ... I was home after the tough racing in my Canadian host's house strumming out knocking on heavens door and crooning some Patience by Guns N Roses on their acoustic guitar. Love the 'minor key' metaphor even better that I was playing the minor keys myself to try get out that disappointment! thanks for the congrats on my blog, take care ash
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