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JUSTINE LEMETEYER: HEAVEN AND HELL!

Heading into the final day of the women’s PWA Slalom Foil season, Justine Lemeteyer held what looked like an unassailable lead…needing only to avoid any major mistakes to secure both the event victory and the world title. Justine should of had a heavenly cruise to glory. Instead, the wheels began to come off her wagon and the momentum was handed over to her rivals. By the time the final race arrived, the championship had slipped out of Lemeteyer’s control after a truly hellish day on the water.

When the points were finally calculated after the final race, Justine had clinched the title by the skin of her teeth, but it was far from the triumphant finish she envisioned for her second consecutive world crown. To make matters worse…her disastrous performance totally messed up our Windsurf predictions…Grrrr!!! We caught up with her to unravel exactly what went wrong during that roller-coaster final day of the season. 

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WINDSURF: So, when you rocked up at the beach for finals day, you were the undisputed favourite to win the title. Talk us through what you thought how day was going to play out like.

JUSTINE: “In the morning I was feeling good and I was confident. And then the first final, I had a small mistake at the gybe and came back third, so it was all good. It was just a small slip up… I was like OK, that’s my hiccup.

OVER EARLY MISUNDERSTANDING!

And then for the next round, I had a misunderstanding with the committee boat where I understood I was over-early when I actually was not. I thought I saw the sign from the committee that it was me who was over, but in the end, there was no official announcement that I was out.

The committee boat put up the over-early flag, but when they looked at the footage and said no, I was actually perfect…really perfect…I knew I was on the edge. And then I don’t know what I was thinking. I went straight back to the beach. I had misunderstood Ben van der Steen; the start line judge and I thought I was over. When I arrived at the beach and saw everybody telling me to go back. Everybody was shouting at me go back, go back! I tried to make it, but I saw everybody starting the race. I was like, f**k… I tried to get to the line, but I missed the start. I could not believe what was happening … I didn’t do that, did I? Not today. It’s not possible!

Then I went back to Ben to clarify what had happened, I realized that I understood him wrong and I was like, oh f**k, not today. By the time I had reached the starting area, they were at the first mark, so I was done. So, I just talked with Ben trying to understand what just happened.

And then I came back to the beach. I was angry. But I knew I had focus on the next one round. I managed to regroup… I was just thinking I just need to win the next one. I’ve done a mistake, it’s OK. I was like, this is my discard, it’s not the end of the world. So, the title race was still OK at that moment.”

THE FINAL ROUND…CATASTROPHE!

I went to my semi. It was windy. I changed to my small sail, which was a good decision. So, I went back on the water feeling OK… usually, I’m better when I’m angry, so I was using it to perform.

And then yeah, I raced the semi-final with a solid start and great first gybe. I had a healthy lead, so I was like, it’s OK, just have to finish it. And then there was a gust like 15m before the third buoy. I saw it coming. I was focused. I was not fast. And then the foil goes up and up…crash! I was so close to the mark that the catapult brought me downwind of the mark. I was so unlucky.

I was really feeling good and yeah, just out of nowhere…it was gone. I was not even angry at that moment. I was just like, I’m so unlucky. I was not even angry at myself because I was not pushing. I saw the gust coming.

So I went back to the beach, looked at my dad. I was still not even angry. I was just in disbelief. I started packing and then I realised I had lost it. So, the emotions rose to the surface and I started crying!

How did I possibly lose it with the lead I had? I was like, oh, I’m going to have nightmares of that day for the rest of my life.”

WINDSURF: A lot of people on the beach thought Lina had won the title…

JUSTINE: “I even congratulated Lena. Yeah, poor Lena, everybody was sure she won. And then… yeah. I was packing and then they just came over to tell me I had won and I could not believe what they were telling me. I thought they were coming to tell me I’m vice world champion.

And then they said I had won on countback.… yeah, I couldn’t believe it. It was just such a rollercoaster. I went from hell to heaven. I was totally emotional and overwhelmed.

Now, I’m still angry at myself for the day, I am not proud to win the title that way. It’s more like, how the f**k did I do that? That’s what I am thinking right now. It was just like a nightmare. Yeah, everything that could go wrong went wrong. So now it’s done, I will take it from there and learn from it.”

WINDSURF: At least you can’t really have a worse day than that, can you?

JUSTINE: That’s what I’m thinking. I don’t really know what happened. There are so many things to process. I didn’t sleep well the night before, so maybe that explains small mistakes, like the catapult and the bad start misunderstanding. So yeah, there’s many things to look at and try to learn from and understand why it all went wrong.

That’s why I was angry. I did the perfect season up until the last day and for one bad day I was going to lose it. That was hard to process.

I’m relieved. Relieved and a bit angry at myself, but yeah… relieved now.

Yeah, it started off heaven, then it went to hell, then it went back to heaven. I cannot make it easy for myself, but it definitely brought some suspense!”