Sailor Rachael Betschart is celebrating another career highlight after making it to the podium at the Waszp Games last week.

Betschart finished third in the female category after making it through to the gold fleet after two days of qualifying races against 220 of the best young sailors in the world.

Despite being called the Waszp Games, the event is the world championships, with sailors from around the globe competing on the South Coast of England in Weymouth, Dorset.

Betschart was thrilled after sharing the podium behind winner Pearl Lattanzi, of the United States, and runner-up Mina Ferguson from Australia, and spoke to The Royal Gazette on her return to Bermuda

“I’m really happy with how I did,” Betschart said.

“It was a great event and I’m really proud of everything. I definitely feel lucky and my family has been so helpful with everything. They are always there for me and supporting, as are my coaches.

“A big part of my success is having a big team on shore waiting for me and supporting. That is a big mental factor in my sailing and I am really happy with the summer I’ve had.”

Betschart is used to success in her sailing career and the step up to this level for the first time led to her modifying her goals as the competition came towards its exciting conclusion.

“Having not been to the Waszp World Championship before my goal was to make into the gold fleet, which is the top third and that happens after two days of qualifying when the field is then split up,” Betschart said.

“After that you race in the finals, so my goal was to be in the top third but after I achieved that it was to make the podium in the female category.

“I expected the standard to be really high. I’ve been training with a European team for quite a while and I saw the standard that was set at their training sessions and their competitions, so I understood what I needed to do. But to begin with I guess I didn’t realise how I would perform at that level, so I was really happy with how my performance went.”

Given the amount of racing done during a world championship regatta, there are bound to be high and low points, but Betschart is pleased at her ability to maintain a high level.

“My highlight was my level of consistency,” she said. “I had some bad races, which happen, but for the most part I was consistent with how I was sailing and I was very happy with that because consistency is such a huge thing in this sport. I feel like there is always little things I can work on and little things can have a big impact.

“The hardest part of it is just how big the fleet is and how many people are on the race course at once on the starting line. Having really good starts is 90 per cent of the race.”

Despite her success at the event in the UK, school takes preference over sailing for Betschart, who will miss the next Waszp Games, but the last week of racing has strengthened her love of the sport.

“I won’t be able to do the next world champs because of timing and school, but I love this sport and I will definitely keep on sailing Waszps,” she said. I love the sport and everybody is so nice in the class, everybody helps each other and I really enjoy it.“

Betschart was not the only sailor representing Bermuda at the event in Weymouth with Trystan Hocking winning the green fleet regatta, which is contested by the most inexperienced sailors at the Waszp Games.

After only recently starting to compete in this category, Hocking won three of the 11 races to beat Finley Kirkby of the United Kingdom by just one point.