SHANDON sailor Anna Burnet missed out on adding a European title to her world championship crown after the closing stages of the competition in Attersee in Austria at the weekend.
Burnet and her sailing partner John Gimson, who were selected to represent Team GB in the Nacra 17 category at Tokyo 2020 in February in the wake of their world title win in Australia at the start of the year, were runners up at the 2019 Europeans – and were aiming to go one better as they continue their preparations for the rescheduled Olympics in Japan next summer.
However, despite weaving their way through to second across the finish after looking dead and buried half way through the final race, the fast-finishing British team fell short of the podium by a single point on Sunday.
READ MORE: Rhu's Olympic duo Dobson and Burnet among medals at Kiel Week
After a six-month break in international competition due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Gimson and Burnet marked their return to action last month with a silver medal at Kieler Woche, and the pair had hoped to take that momentum into the 2020 Europeans, which started last Thursday with a fleet of 30 boats lining up.
“We’re looking forward to getting started,” said 28-year-old Burnet before the event.
“Lake Attersee is a small lake surrounded by big mountains – there are definitely some similarities to Gareloch and Rudyard Lake, where John and I grew up sailing, but it’s very different to Tokyo and the usual Olympic class venues.
“We have a very competitive fleet here with all the top European teams so it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to race in difficult sailing conditions.”
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