Bryony Shaw believes she is developing the ability to rise to the occasion when it matters most after clinching silver at the RS: X Windsurfing World Championships in Mussanah, Oman.
The 32-year-old went into the medal race knowing that gold was already out of her grasp with China’s Chen Peina having wrapped things up following a strong display during the week.
But the 32-year-old made sure to clinch the runners up spot after holding off the challenge from her Dutch and Polish rivals on the final day.
It doubles the amount of World Championship silvers in her collection, following a second-place finish in 2013 and Shaw admitted she was happy with her work in Oman.
“This was a target event and one I wanted to peak for,” Shaw admitted. “Mid way through the week I could see that it was going to be a really tough fight and come down to the medal race. "It’s great that I’m able to perform on medal race day, it seems to be a strength of mine, and certainly sailing on the fin now it seems my speed has really improved.
“All of those things coming together and the board speed stuff really helps when you’re trying to perform at your peak regatta. It’s all those hard yards put into practice.
“The light wind specialists really came to the fore here. The Chinese girl was extremely impressive all week with a near immaculate scoreline in the end, especially from the penultimate day with two firsts and a second.
“She was coming back from average top mark roundings and then absolutely smashing it downwind. She had some huge comebacks and her physicality was really, really impressive.”
In the men’s fleet, Nick Dempsey was left to count the cost of too many mistakes in the second half of his regatta after the two-time world champion finish 13th overall.
“There were some good things, but a few too many mistakes,” Dempsey admitted.
“I’ve closed the gap massively on the front runners in the light, but made too many errors which left me way back.”
Gold went to France’s Pierre Le Coq while British Sailing Team’s Podium Potential sailor Kieran Martin finish 17th and as the second Under-21 sailor.
Sportsbeat 2015