A long ten days of competition at the Allianz Sailing World Championships came to a close in The Hague, The Netherlands, with the ILCA 6 Medal Race, where US Sailing Team’s Charlotte Rose secured fifth overall, a personal career best in the Olympic class ILCA 6.
Rose had nothing to lose going into the Medal Race. Entering in fifth overall, she’d managed to put enough points between her and sixth place Emma Plasschaert of Belgium, so the only way she could go was up the leaderboard. With all points in play above her, Rose sailed an aggressive final race in very light conditions on the North Sea. She rounded the leeward gate in fifth and ultimately dropped back to ninth to close out the race, but stood by her decisions to try mostly anything and give it her all.
“My main goal was to make the medal race, so to finish fifth means the world to me. This is a new personal best,” said Rose, the two-time Youth Worlds Gold Medalist in the ILCA 6 now making her way up the Olympic class circuit. “It feels really great to qualify the United States for the Olympic Games and to represent the US on the world stage here. The best part of Worlds was being able to close my season on a good note and handle all the conditions I faced this week. It was stressful for sure. I’m happy to have some time off now to reset for the 2024 Worlds in January and the Olympic Trials in Miami.”
In addition to the ILCA 6 berth, the US Sailing Team USA qualified for Paris 2024 in the 49er with top finishes by Andrew Mollerus and Ian MacDiarmid and Ian Barrows, as well as Ian Barrows and Hans Henken. Steph Roble & Maggie Shea locked in the team’s 49erFX berth and Daniela Moroz finished fifth in the Women’s Formula Kite to earn her ticket to Marseilles.
The next opportunity to qualify the United States in the remaining classes is the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile October 28 – November 5.
