| MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA-(11-1-2004) Following on from her ISAF Youth 420 Worlds win in Portugal earlier this year, Elise Rechichi and her crew of three months, Tessa Parkinson (AUS), kept their cool to finish 1-9-1 in today’s final races to win 420 Ladies World Championships 2004 at the Sail Melbourne International Regatta.
The girls, who took out the Australian Ladies and Youth Championship titles at Sail Melbourne last week, come from Perth in Western Australia. They notched up an incredible six wins from 12 races for series points of 43, after two race drops, to deservedly win the title. Their nearest rivals, sisters Lucy and Nicola Macgregor (GBR), finished 19 points behind the winners with a total of 62, their best place today a second in Race 11.
The sisters defeated their third-placed English rivals, Charlotte Savage/Hariette Trumble, who were in second place going into today’s races, their 19th place in Race 10 putting paid to any chance of a top three position.
Camille Lecointre /Gwendolyn Lemaitre (FRA) were sixth overall when they left the dock from the host club, Mornington Yacht Club this morning; however a consistent 5-4-5 today lifted them up into third place overall.
Thirty seven girls from around the world contested the 420 Worlds, including representatives from Italy, Great Britain, France, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Brazil, Belgium and of course, Australia, the latter allowed 14 entries as the host Nation.
It has been a phenomenal past 12 months or so for Rechichi. What makes this win remarkable is the fact they are still Youth sailors. They also went into today’s final three races knowing that any of the six top-placed girls could take the title, which would have added strain.
Rechichi is thrilled with their win. ‘It’s my 18th birthday today, but I didn’t tell anyone in case it put a bit of a hex on us, but it’s just the best birthday present’ she said.
Asked if they expected to win the Worlds, Rechichi said, ‘we had a goal to be in the top three. We thought we had more chance if it was windier, we’re not as good as some others are in light airs, but we sailed really well at this regatta and mostly it was light, so we are both very, very happy, but also a bit surprised at that.
I think the reason we are doing so well is that Tess (who is 17) is a fantastic crew and we get on so well, we are really good friends and never fight. We are both so happy. My Dad arrived here today, and he is quite excited – so is my Mum who was here earlier in the week to watch us, but had to go home.
Tess and I go off to McCrae tomorrow to start the Australian Youth Worlds and we want to do well there too – with my crew from before, Rachel Martin, we missed Gold by one place at the Youth titles in Canada in 2002, so I hope we can win here,’ she said.
After that, Rechichi and Rike Ziegelmayer will team up again to contest a number of 470 regattas.
Paying tribute to their coach Denis Jones, Rechichi said, ‘we couldn’t have done this without him, he has coached me for the last two years, he was here to see us win and I can’t thank him enough for his support, he is such a good support to both of us.’
Rechichi went on to say their major threats for the title were the eventual second, third and fourth place getters – ‘those girls were always going to be very hard to beat,’ she said.
Places this afternoon are of course provisional pending protests.
Competitors from the World fleets, the Silver fleet and the 420 Mornington Regatta will join together tonight for their presentation and farewell.
For full information, results and photos go to the official site:
www.sailmelbourne.com.au
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