Vita and Ryan's 470 Campaign - Season End
Cecil Wright & Partners are delighted to sponsor Vita's campaign to make the 2024 Olympic Games.
In the fight
What a season it has been! Kicking off back in April with Palma and Hyeres - both top 10 finishes was a cracking start to the year.
The summer spent training in Marseille, getting to grip with the Olympic venue and what we might expect in summer of 2024, was a pretty special time.Autumn however came with a couple of devastating traumas which threatened to put us off track. Family loss and injury made it very hard to push through the final stage of the season. We made the best of some horrible situations, supported each other, and have come together stronger as a team as a result. Individually we made leaps of progress in certain aspects when we are not able to sail together.
We couldn’t make it to the Europeans which at first seemed like a disaster but actually we both learned a lot from a different perspective and it gave us the chance to step back and re-asses some points in our campaign, which I believe will enrich it going forward. Vita did the Europeans with her younger brother William, and had a blast of a week, ending up in pretty good shape at the end of the event! 16th overall and 1st Juniors!
Ryan got the all clear from his injury just a week before we flew out to the Worlds! So 7 weeks out of the boat wasn’t quite the preparation to the World Championships we had envisioned! But we were grateful to be able to go out there and race and see where the fleet had got to. We had a good week overall, particularly the start of gold fleet - a bullet in the first race! What a feeling to come back from such a low and be winning races!
Unfortunately, we had a shocking last 3 races, moving us down the pan quite a bit! We weren’t expecting to be a polished product but nevertheless this was frustrating to finish on some bad races. We finished up 14th which we were pleased with considering the circumstances. We came away with some major positive changes in our racing; our starts were better than they’ve ever been and we were rapid in the 15+ wind range!
This was the toughest event of the season, all teams had been building up to peak at this event, bringing their A game to the most important championship of the year. Man the racing was tough! We were fighting for every inch; the fleet was so compact that one small wrong move could cost a boat length equal to 10 places! So there was no easing back into it for us; tossed straight back into the fight! It was amazing though, to be racing again in this ultra competence fleet .
It definitely set the fire burning to work harder than ever this winter; to bridge that gap to the podium. This has no doubt been the toughest time in our campaign so far. We are proud to still be up there fighting at the top of the fleet despite this setback.
We are ready to crack the whip this winter and hit next season at full speed as we enter our selection trials.
The support we have had over this period had been incredible; from our coach, the team, family and friends. It has made the difference.
Upcoming events…
• Princess Sofia - Palma, 3-8 April
• French Olympic Week - Hyères, 24-29 April
• World Championships - The Hague, 13-18 August
This year we will be doing update videos that will be posted on the highlights page of our website each month so you can see what we’re getting up to.
Please please share this with anyone who you think might be interested; they have the chance to help our team go to the Olympic Games! We need the funds now more that ever to get that jump over our competition. We have a new boat on order for June which will use up half of our funding for the year.
We are immensely grateful to everyone who has been supporting us, you support and encouragement means a lot to us and gives the confidence to keep fighting! Not long now until our Olympic trials!
As always, any contribution to travel, accommodation, entry costs (etc) will be massively appreciated and will go along way!
If you want to help us out on our journey to Paris 2024 or want to chat, then please give us a call! Vita – 07586349225 Email – vitaryangbr11@gmail.com
For some gnarly pics and updates on our progress, check out:
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