Bright's late gybe snatches iQFOiL under-23 gold in Poland

Aimee Bright produced a last-gasp comeback to win the iQFOiL Under-23 World Championship, overturning a deficit against Norway's Maya Gysler at the final mark of a dramatic Grand Final in Puck, Poland, to claim her first world title.

The 20-year-old Manly Sailing Club sailor had dominated the regatta from the first race, winning 11 of 20 qualifying course and slalom races to earn a direct spot in the winner-take-all finale. Yet the final itself nearly slipped from her grasp.

Bright, daughter of Kiwi windsurfing great Barbara Kendall, was slow off the line. Gysler got the jump, rounded the pin first, and opened a gap that looked, for a while, decisive.

"It was a very exciting final race," Bright said. "I came in a bit early to the start, so I didn't have much speed coming off the line. Maya got in front of me and was a bit closer to the pin, so she rounded first. It was quite light, and we were pumping a lot downwind. I tried to hook in and save my energy as much as I could."

"It looked like she was quite far in the lead, so I was thinking I was just going to come second, which was a little bit disappointing," Bright said.

Her chance came at the final mark.

"I saw we could be on layline, so I decided to gybe as tight to the layline as possible to give myself any chance of overtaking her," she said. "It looked like she'd been pumping the whole leg, so I knew she might not have had much energy left. I pumped as hard as I could and managed to get a lot of depth on her and lay the mark first. She just didn't make it, so she had to gybe out."

From there Bright held her advantage over the last two reaches and crossed first. She collapsed onto her board at the finish before training partner and close friend Stella Bilger swam over to be among the first to celebrate with her.

"It's pretty surreal to call myself under-23 world champion," Bright said. "I'm super happy to get the first and do better than last year, when I came second behind Stella. I was definitely determined to come out on top. You always try and do your best, and I'm super stoked that I could bring it all together."

Leading an entire regatta from start to finish was new territory for Bright, who admitted it carried its own kind of pressure.

"It's quite a different feeling when you're leading an event from start to finish. I've never really had that feeling before," she said. "It can be quite scary and stressful at times, but I just brought it back to taking it day by day and really trying not to think about the results. It's good to learn how to lead an event and keep it all together for the whole event."

Last year it was Bilger who took gold, with Bright second in an all-Kiwi finish. Bilger now sails under the Australian flag, but the friendship clearly hasn't changed.

"I don't think it feels much different competing against Stella now with the Australian flag," Bright said. "It's such a cool opportunity for her, and I'm happy for her. I hope we can still keep working together and pushing each other because it's so cool how far we've come together."

For all the significance of the under-23 title, Bright still points to her silver medal at the senior iQFOiL European Championship in Portugal in May as the standout achievement of her career. That result, her first senior international medal, came in a season that also included a second overall finish at the Olympic Classes Regatta at the venue for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic sailing competition.

Not everything went to plan. Bright fell ill shortly before the senior iQFOiL World Championships in Weymouth, England, last month, the event she regarded as the biggest of her year, and finished 19th while Bilger claimed bronze in her first podium for Australia.

"It was really heartbreaking getting so sick just before the Worlds, which was definitely my peak event of the year," Bright said. "I was determined to try and do my best here and sort of redeem myself."

The extended international campaign has also meant spending almost two and a half months away from home.

"It's definitely been hard," she said. "I've had my moments of homesickness and missing my family, especially when I was sick before the World Championships. It's always nice when you have your mum helping you out. But I definitely have a good support team around me. My coach (Paul Snow-Hansen) has been super supportive, and it's been super nice living with Stella and having cries and laughs and giggles together all the time."

Her celebration plans are refreshingly unglamorous.

"I will celebrate by packing up," she laughed. "I'm packing up everything to fly home tomorrow."

Bright will train in New Zealand for the next two months, with a possible trip to Sail Melbourne in December before the 2027 World Sailing Combined World Championship in Brazil in early January.

"It's a super quick turnaround," she said. "That's the next pinnacle event. Hopefully I can be fit and healthy and do my best."