Kiwi sailor Jo Aleh has received a timely confidence boost with the "real racing" at the Laser Radial World Champs off Takapuna set to begin today.
Despite suffering a rollercoaster day, Aleh excelled in the light air conditions late on day four and is in ominous form headingin to the final days of the regatta.
With the fleets to be divided into gold and silver from today, Aleh will be racing against the top-ranked sailors.
Light winds continue to frustrate race management with day four once again punctuated by long periods of waiting around. Both fleets were able to get in two of the three scheduled races on day four, but the proceedings were very stop-start.
It was a particularly frustrating day for local hope Aleh, who spent over nine hours on the water.
After a disastrous 43rd placing in race four, the determined Aleh came out firing in the second race of the day. The 21-year-old West Aucklander led the blue fleet by an incredible margin of over four minutes at the final mark rounding and had the finish line in sight when the wind cruelly dropped out forcing race management to abandon the race. Though Aleh would have had enough momentum to finish the race, with the breeze dropping to around one knot the rest of the fleet were virtually stalled.
Aleh said she was very annoyed.
"It's pretty hard to see that abandonment flag go up when you can see the finish line and you've just worked hard the whole race."
A furious Aleh returned ashore and was forced to wait for the wind to pick up so they could get a second race in. Meanwhile, with two races complete for the day, the yellow fleet were able to pack up and go home. Though the breeze was still marginal, the blue fleet were sent back on to the water in the early evening with Aleh eventually recording a second placing in race five.
Aleh's strong performances in the incredibly light conditions certainly bode well for the Olympics later this year, with light air expected at the Qingdao venue.
"That's what I've been trying to tailor myself for so it's good if I can sail well in those conditions and I hope to get even better."
