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Annabelle Rennie-Younger

Rennie-Younger puts injuries behind her

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Annabelle Rennie-Younger has seen enough of the treatment table lately so was pretty happy to see herself on top of the Laser Radial fleet at the 2021 Freshwater Champs at Lake Pupuke last weekend.

The 21-year-old spent most of the summer out of the boat, firstly with a back injury and then a fractured elbow, so went into the Freshwater Champs with low expectations. She was not only first female and but also first overall, finishing one point ahead of one of this country's top Laser Radial youth sailors Caleb Armit.

Significantly, there were 10 females in the 23-strong Radial fleet, and Greta Pilkington was the top youth female, second youth overall and fourth overall. Sophia Morgan was third female and seventh overall.

The top youth and female sailors will continue to train with Yachting New Zealand's Laser Radial coach Rosie Chapman over the winter as they work towards the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Rennie-Younger had been anticipating a good summer of training and racing in New Zealand before tweaking a disc in her back while at the gym in October. 

"I was having time off to fix that when I went for a bike ride and fell off my bike and fractured my elbow," she said. "I was out road biking and clipped my wheel on the tram tracks down near the Viaduct.

"It was pretty frustrating because [the back] was niggly and took a long time to come right. Once I injured my elbow, I used that time to fully heal my back.

"I have had a lot of time out of the boat and I think it helped me reset and focus on what I need to work on. I had a really good week on the water with Rosie [leading into the Freshwater Champs] and made a couple of breakthroughs which gave me confidence going into the weekend."

Annabelle Rennie-Younger
Annabelle Rennie-Younger won the Laser Radial title. Banner image: Competing at the 2019 Laser Radial world championships. Photo: Bulkhead Magazine.

Rennie-Younger still had reasonably low expectations, and was more focused on getting race sharp again after such a long layoff. But she picked up two race wins, including the first race of the seven-race series, and then held off a fast-finishing Armit who won the last two races.

"I surprised myself," Rennie-Younger admitted. "But it’s been a long time coming to finally win one. I have been in the top group with the youth boys but never managed to seal the deal, so that was quite nice.

"We'll get into full training mode now with the Radial squad, just clocking up the hours. There’s a key bunch of girls now and at times [over the weekend] it was one, two, three around the top mark with Greta, Sophia and I, which was cool to see."

It was a lot more clearcut in the 20-boat Laser fleet at the last major Laser regatta of the season, with Harrison Baker finishing 12 points ahead of Australian Gavin Dagley, who was in Auckland visiting family. It might have been a different story if Luke Deegan raced both days considering he won all four races on the Saturday.

Results and standings from the 2021 Freshwater Champs at the Pupuke Boating Club:

Laser Radial (23 boats)

1st: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) 1 (7) 4 2 1 4 2 - 14 points
2nd: Caleb Armit (MBSC) 4 1 2 (7) 6 1 1 - 15 pts
3rd: Phil Wild (Manly Sailing Club) 2 4 (6) 6 3 2 6 - 23 pts

Laser (20 boats)

1st Harrison Baker (MBSC) 2 2 (3) 2 1 1 3 3 - 11 pts
2nd: Gavin Dagley (PMYC) 4 3 2 6 3 (7) 5 - 23 pts
3rd: Giles Grigg (Tamaki Yacht Club) (12) 4 6 4 5 2 4 - 25 pts

Full results