News
Laser Radial women qualify Australia for Tokyo 2020
Published Wed 24 Jul 2019
Berths for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are an important factor at the ILCA Laser Radial World Championship which wraps up today in Japan.
Fourteen countries in the Gold fleet are competing for the ten spots allocated for this event, and at the end of day 5 Australia is set to compete at Tokyo 2020 thanks to the efforts of Mara Stransky and her Australian Sailing Squad teammate Zoe Thomson, who are side-by-side on the pointscore in 32nd and 33rd place.
Queenslander Stransky found better form in Tuesday’s heavier air to move ahead of Thomson, saying on Wednesday morning: “It's been a tough one so far but yesterday was a better day with more consistently strong wind where I was able to hold onto some better positions with decent speed.
“Either Zoe or I will qualify Australia for Tokyo which is a positive on what has been a tough week for all of us,” Stransky added.
Tuesday July 23 at the Laser Radial worlds on Miho Bay, Japan, brought clear skies and steady 18-20 knot westerlies. Similar to the ‘Freo Doctor’ afternoon seabreeze in Fremantle, Western Australia, Sakaiminato City locals refer to it as the ‘Kamikaze’ wind.
The penultimate world championship day was a day to stay in phase and in the pressure, with only slight velocity and bearing variations. And it was the day West Australian Radial sailor Elyse Ainsworth scored two top ten results, saying overnight. “It was good to finally stretch the legs. I managed to get some good starts and work on my stronger wind races.
“I also managed to stay out of trouble today and away from the jury, which was a big positive! I look forward to continuing to build on my skills on the final day of racing.”
Ainsworth’s good form is a welcome confidence boost though it won’t move her far beyond a mid-fleet finish in the super tough international field scrambling for places and country points on the road to Tokyo.
Top of the leaderboard changed again overnight with Marit Bouwmeester (NED) sliding into pole position having edged out Ecem Güzel (TUR) and Tuula Tenkanen (FIN).
2020 Olympic Qualification (14 countries competing for 10 places):
1. Croatia CRO 107 pts
2. Argentina ARG 151 pts
3. Australia AUS 163 pts
4. Ireland IRL 195 pts
5. Uruguay URU 199 pts
6. Cypress CYP 205 pts
7. Russia RUS 208 pts
8. Lithuania LTU 208 pts
9. Belarus BLR 209 pts
10. New Zealand NZL 212 pts
11. Guatemala GUA 255 pts
12. Thailand THA 258 pts
13. Spain ESP 260 pts
14. Saint Lucia LCA 261 pts
Event Website: https://2019worlds.laserjapan.org/radial/
Results: https://2019worlds.laserjapan.org/radial/results/
Photo Galleries: https://www.facebook.com/2019-Laser-Worlds-JAPAN-284629198769700/
Results (111 boats):
32nd Mara Stransky 27, 10, 15, 28, 27, 27, (44), 16, 13 = 163 points
33rd Zoe Thomson 35, 12, 25, 21, 22, 7, 27, (43), 20 = 169 points
60th Elyse Ainsworth 50, 27, 30, 11, (57 – RET), 10 - SCP, 14, 7, 7 = 156 points
Today marks exactly 1 year until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, our sailors are excited about this milestone: click here to view the video
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