The last two days to compensate for the missed racing we did three races a day. Which was pretty full on as you can imagine.
Days Five
This is the fifth day of the regatta but the third day of racing. I improved; I had some moments of good races. I had a second. Which was great but, on the first lap I rounded second just behind first place and was catching up. But then I capsized. So, I felt I could have won that one. I know second place was amazing but at the time I felt disappointed and frustrated at my mistake. My results were Race Five, 12th, Race Six, 2nd and Race Seven, 8th places.
Day Six
On the last day, Day Six of the regatta but the fourth day of racing, there wasn’t as much wind which meant it shifted around a lot. Which was good for me. Because I wasn’t used to so many boats if I had a bad start, because the wind was moving around a lot more, there were more opportunities for me to catch up. So, I had three top-10 finishes (5th, 4th and 9th) on the last day. I probably made the same amount of errors, but there were just more chances for me to use some of the skills that I hadn’t been able to show I had before.
Post regatta reflection
The best thing was I went there and did it, my first nationals and I achieved 7th overall. Most importantly, I learnt a lot from the experience that I can apply to future events.
I was also happy that I improved at a good rate. Everyone improves at these events. My results in improvement showed that I was learning fast in comparison to my cohort. I was moving up the ranks. That was encouraging. Now for future events, I know what mindset I need to be in.
I now know I was not in the best headspace for a lot of it. I’ve talked with coaches and thought it about myself. So now going into future events, especially while I’m a youth sailor, and a youth athlete, I would be able to have a better attitude. As much as I want a good result to win in every event I enter, I also understand, at this stage of my development, I’m not focused on trying to do that until I’m an adult competitor. I don’t have to worry about that yet. What I need to do right now is develop my experience and learn as much as I can during these opportunities.
What I would like to focus on next time is to give myself the chance to use the skills I have. I spent hours and hours training my fitness. And I didn’t give myself the chance mentally or position myself well on the racecourse to be able to use the speed I’ve worked on.
As my coach said, at the start of the regatta, he could guarantee we’d all be at least 15% better by the end of the regatta, and I can say I definitely feel like I’m 15% better. I could see in my results they were improving by about that amount.
What now?
I had a week of rest after nationals and then I trained three times, and then I had another week on holiday locally within WA. Now I’m back into my full training schedule. And I’m fired up. I’m doing more non-sailing fitness so during my sail training I’m not training my fitness I’m focused on my technique. I’m in full swing for the next event. The next event is ILCA 4 Youth World Championships in Greece in July 2023.
My expectation is that I’ll be able to apply what I learnt at nationals. Be able to practice a different mindset from this worlds experience and then hit the ground running at the next Australian nationals. I then feel like I would have caught up to the other competitors that are already more experienced in these bigger events but may not have the level of technique and speed I have.
Thank you
Finally, I’d like to say thank you to the donors that supported me.
Thank you for your support. It was such a huge help and I truly appreciated it.
Charles Allen Toyn 