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Laser nationals

Armstrong masters the field at Laser nationals

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Jenny Armstrong was able to draw on her considerable experience to narrowly win the Radial masters title at the Laser national championships at the Worser Bay Boating Club on Monday.

She was not only the first masters woman but also first overall, beating Phil Wild (Manly Sailing Club) on countback with Pete Thomas (Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club) 15 points further back in third. 

Armstrong, of course, is a former two-time Olympian, finishing fourth for New Zealand at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in the Europe and then gold for Australia in the women's 470 eight years later in Sydney. You can read more about her journey here.

Armstrong is very much back in Kiwi colours, having relocated back to her home town of Dunedin in 2016, and one of the first things she did was buy a Laser Radial. She had planned an assault on last year's Laser national championships in New Plymouth but was instead beginning the long process back to fitness after a mountain biking accident.

She had knee surgery at Christmas, was walking again in February, sailing again in June and more training more seriously in September.

"It might sound a bit corny but sailing out to that first race, I was already winning because I was there," she said during a break in coaching a 420 squad in Christchurch.

"For me, it was just about coming back from my knee injury. That was my motivation to rehab my knee the whole year and get back to what I thought I could do in the Laser. The rest was icing on the cake."

It didn't take long for the competitive juices to flow and she had a tight battle with Wild and local Worser Bay sailor Edmund Tam across the eight races until Tam suffered two disqualifications in the final two races and was eventually fourth overall.

Wellington certainly lived up to its reputation, with strong winds a feature of the four-day regatta. The second day was blown out entirely as winds in excess of 40 knots ripped down the harbour and it was rarely under 20 knots.

Laser nationals
The conditions were challenging with strong winds a feature. Photos: Chris Coad

Armstrong found the fitness work she had done to rehabilitate her knee proved valuable, along with her extensive experience sailing on the international circuit across nearly two decades.

"I think where my advantage is now is that I have raced a lot of times and been in most of these situations before so I have a lot of that to draw on," she said. "When it gets sticky, I don't panic and just sail each race as it comes. I just had to do the basics right and let the others make the mistakes.

"I just knew I had to win the [last] race. Phil was leading at the top mark, and was generally faster upwind all week, and I had the legs on him downwind sometimes so I got him on the first downwind. I then hiked my arse off and made sure he wasn't going to sail around me on the next upwind. All the fitness work was actually coming into its own."

The results were a lot more clear cut in some of the other divisions, with Olympic bronze medallist Sam Meech (TYPBC) winning all eight races to win the Laser fleet ahead of training partner George Gautrey (Muritai Sailing Club) and Luke Deegan (Pupuke Boating Club).

Olivia Christie (WBBC / Royal Akarana Yacht Club) took out the honours in the Radial women's fleet, finishing ahead of Annabelle Rennie-Younger (Murrays Bay Sailing Club / RAYC) and Emily Overend (Queen Charlotte Yacht Club).

Thomas Mulcahy (MBSC) easily won the Radial youth title, finishing 13 points ahead of Matthew Rist (MSC) and Greta Pilkington (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) comfortably won the Radial youth women's fleet.

Jenny Armstrong
Jenny Armstrong with Sam Meech, who won the national title in the Laser.  

Armstrong has designs on competing at a Laser Radial masters world championships one day - "but I will be picky about the location and needs to be somewhere near the equator," she said - but for the meantime wants to be the fastest in her family.

Her 15-year-old son Zach Stibbe was 16th overall in the Laser Radial fleet and was a valuable training partner for Armstrong as she worked back to full fitness.

"Zach is really motivated now so I'll do a bit of sailing with him to keep him company," she said. "One day he will be beating me so I need to enjoy it while I can."

And she'll be drawing on all of her experience to make sure it stays that way for as long as possible.

Results and standings from the Laser national championships at the Worser Bay Boating Club:

Laser (36 boats)

Open

1st: Sam Meech (Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club) (1) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 7 points
2nd: George Gautrey (Muritai Yacht Club) 2 2 2 2 2 2 (3) 2 - 14 pts
3rd: Luke Deegan (Pupuke Boating Club) (6) 4 3 3 3 3 2 3 - 21 pts

Apprentice

1st: Tim Pitcaithly (Nelson Yacht Club) 7 7 8 11 (14) 7 8 5 - 53 pts

Master

1st: Andrew Dellabarca (Worser Bay Boating Club) 3 5 6 6 5 6 (7) 6 - 37 pts
2nd: Rob Woodward (WBBC) 10 9 7 7 9 8 9 (11) - 59 pts
3rd: Tony Nicholson (PBC) (12) 12 9 8 7 11 11 9 - 67 pts

Grand Master 

1st: Owen Anderson (WBBC) 8 10 14 (37 UFD) 11 14 12 10 - 79 pts
2nd: Doug Anderson (Point Chevalier Sailing Club) 13 13 11 9 13 10 14 (15) 83 pts
3rd: Nick Page (PBC) 18 (21) 21 15 16 19 13 14 - 116 pts

Great Grand Master

1st: Mike Keeton (PBC) 22 24 16 (37 DNF) 17 15 19 37 DNF - 150 pts

Laser Radial (36 boats)

Youth

1st: Thomas Mulcahy (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 (4) - 8 pts
2nd: Matthew Rist (Manly Sailing Club) (5) 3 2 5 2 4 4 1 - 21 pts
3rd: Caleb Armit (MBSC) 2 1 3 3 (37 BFD) 8 8 5 - 30 pts

Open 

1st: George Lane (Hamilton Yact Club) 3 6 6 (8) 7 2 2 2 - 28 pts
2nd: James Bitchener (Plimmerton Boating Club / WBBC) 24 SPI1 (29) 24 (26 SPI1 23 29 23 27 - 176 pts

Women

1st: Olivia Christie (WBBC / Royal Akarana Yacht Club) 8 5 5 2 3 6 (37 UFD) 3 - 32 pts
2nd: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (MBSC / RAYC) 7 4 7 7 4 3 7 (10) 39 pts
3rd: Emily Overend (Queen Charlotte Yacht Club) 16 (17) 15 12 13 13 14 16 - 99 pts

Youth

1st: Greta Pilkington (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) 11 (12) 10 10 8.5 11 10 12 - 72.5 pts
2nd: Sophia Morgan (Kohimarama Yacht Club) (29 SCP) 21 20 24 17 25 20 24 - 151 pts
3rd: Teaghan Denney (TYPBC) 22 22 (27) 22 21 27 21 26 - 161 pts

Masters

1st: Jenny Armstrong (Otago Yacht Club) 1 2 (3) 3 1 2 2 1 - 12 pts
2nd: Phil Wild (MSC) (3) 1 1 2 2 3 1 2 - 12 pts
3rd: Pete Thomas (TYPBC) 4 4 4 5 4 (6) 3 3 - 27 pts

1st Radial Master: Jenny Armstrong (OYC)
1st Radial Apprentice: Phil Wild (MSC)
1st Radial Grand Master: Pete Thomas (TYPBC)
1st Radial Great Grand Master: John Pitman (New Plymouth Yacht Club)

Full results here