By Will Castle
Team GB sailor Ellie Aldridge has expressed frustration after adverse weather once again brought play to a halt in Marseille.
Aldridge was unable to compete in Race 6 of the Formula Kite series, with the lack of wind making kiting nearly impossible.
Missing out on the first race of the day, it allowed France’s Lauriane Nolot to gain on Aldridge at the top of the leaderboard, with the two now joint for first with 12 points.
Windless conditions then forced all other scheduled races to be cancelled and it now looks highly likely that Aldridge’s class will not complete its entire 12-race series, putting heightened pressure on each outing.
“We were meant to have done 12 races right now and we've done half of that, so it's going to be a small opening series, which just means that every race really counts,” Aldridge said.
“We normally have quite a lot of discards so we can drop for quite a few races, but because we don't have enough races, we won't have as many discards.
“It just means that every race is really important. I just need to not make any mistakes tomorrow.”
“I didn't have a great day,” she added. “The air was pretty light, so they were pushing to race us in really light winds and I didn't actually get to the start of the first race.
“I almost did and had a bit of a situation pre start and ended up with my kite in the water, which is easy to do when it's really light.
“I didn't do the first race, and then, unfortunately, they abandoned the second race. So not a great day for me.”
Marseille has thrown up its fair share of problems for sailing at Paris 2024, with unpredictable conditions at the venue causing a smattering of races to be cancelled across the Games thus far.
Aldridge has more than felt the inconvenience of the windless weather, which once again reared its ugly head on Tuesday.
Speaking on the difficulty of kiting without wind, she said: “It's especially when you're really close to all the other kites, there's a lot going on and you have to be really focussed.
“If you kind of lose focus for a second or there's just one thing in your way, then you can make a little mistake and then suddenly you're in the water and there's not enough wind to get around it all.”
Follow the British Sailing Team at Paris 2024 on Instagram at @britishsailing and on www.britishsailingteam.com
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