THE disappointment must have been palpable for Elizabeth Yin (picture), when she came home in 44th spot in the first race for the gold fleet yesterday in the Women’s Laser Radial World Championship in Auckland.

But the 17-year-old Victoria Junior College student showed she was made of sterner stuff with a stunning comeback in the following race, fending off the challenges from Great Britain’s Penny Clark and Gladysz Zuzanna of Poland to clinch top spot. Elizabeth’s remarkable comeback means she is now on the brink of booking Singapore a spot in the Laser Radial event at the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

After three races yesterday — she came in 15th in the third race — Elizabeth is ranked No 21 in the gold fleet standings. Among the host of countries doing battle in Auckland are 23 nations fighting to qualify for the final six places at the Olympics and in that race, Elizabeth’s sitting
pretty in second spot, just behind Sweden. Also currently lying in the group of six are Spain, Greece, Russia and Denmark, in that order.

Team-mate Lo Man Yi, 20, is No 41 overall, while Victoria Chan, 17, is currently second in the silver fleet. Speaking to TODAY from Auckland, SingaporeSailing team manager Peter Logan
believes they have a good chance of realising their Olympic dream. “Things went very well for us today … this really brings us right into reckoning and I’ll say we have a very good chance of qualifying,” said the Aussie.

There will be two final races today off Takapuna Beach and Logan has already laid out the orders for the sailors.

He said: “The girls can’t take anything for granted and they have to stay calm throughout … we need to sail well and let other people make the mistakes.”

The Republic have already qualified for the men’s Laser Standard and 470 men’s Olympic events and if Elizabeth holds her nerve, then Singapore will have three sailing prospects for the Games, which will be held in Qingdao, China.

“The girls are very young and it’s been an onerous task to come to the final of the World Championship,” said Logan.

“The fact that Elizabeth won a race in the gold fleet was just beyond expectations… it’s been such a tremendous confidence booster for her. Of course for now, the team are keeping a lid on their emotions and it’s business as usual.”