Defending champion Bryony Shaw extended her lead at the halfway stage of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami on Wednesday (28 January), with British Sailing Team crews well placed across the 13 Olympic and Paralympic Classes after the third day of competition.
Shaw, who won the 2014 edition of the season-opening regatta, added two race wins and a second to her scorecard today to stretch out a 17 point lead in the women’s windsurfing class with three days still to run.
She’s one of five British boats to top the standings heading into the second half of the regatta, with Giles Scott and Megan Pascoe maintaining their leads in their respective Finn and 2.4mR Paralympic classes, and 470 European Champions Luke Patience-Elliot Willis and 49er pairing John Pink-Stuart Bithell advancing into pole position through their efforts on the water on Wednesday.
In spite of her commanding position at this stage of the regatta, the Olympic bronze medallist Shaw feels there’s room for improvement looking ahead to the rest of the week.
“It’s strange, it didn’t feel like a perfect day out there. I made a lot of mistakes actually,” the 31-year-old admitted.
“It was really shifty and puffy and I think it was my awareness, especially on the downwinds, that really pulled me through.
“I made a couple of silly calls by going a bit too extreme at the start so I had to make some pretty big comebacks today.”
With a gold medal at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi, a gold medal on the Rio 2016 waters just before Christmas, and another victory in the warm-up regatta to this week’s World Cup a fortnight ago, Shaw feels confident about her present form and hopes to continue in that vein this week.
“I feel like this is a momentum from winning in Abu Dhabi at the end of last year and the event we had in Rio. It’s nice to come out here and put on a good show.
“I really feel like 2015 is my year and it’s important for performance. I want to try and be selected for the Games and win a medal in Rio, so I need to be performing at that level now.”
