Aimee Bright cut short the sailing adventure of a lifetime with her family to chase another international podium, and the sacrifice could hardly have paid off better. The 20-year-old Aucklander has claimed silver at the Olympic Classes Regatta in Long Beach, finishing runner-up in one of the strongest women's iQFOiL fields assembled this season, at the very venue that will host sailing at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
The result gives Bright her second major international silver medal in as many months, backing up her breakthrough podium at the iQFOiL European Championships in Portugal in late May. It also continues New Zealand's strong run of international success across Olympic and youth classes over the past week.
Only days before racing began in Long Beach, Bright was offshore aboard a family friend's catamaran, crossing from New Zealand to Fiji via Minerva Reef. "It was something I'd always wanted to do," she said. "We spent six days sailing to Minerva Reef before reaching Fiji. Unfortunately, I only had about 24 hours there before I had to fly here for racing. I got pretty seasick, and you definitely go a little bit crazy living in such a confined space for that long, but it was incredibly special. We hadn't all travelled together as a family for years, so I'm really glad I got to do it."
From Fiji she flew straight to California, won three qualifying races, and secured second overall heading into the medal series. That placed her directly into a winner-takes-all final against Britain's Emma Wilson, the reigning world champion and double Olympic medallist.
The medal race proved brutal. Light conditions meant both sailors spent almost the entire race pumping their sails simply to stay foiling. "It was definitely one of the toughest races I've ever done," Bright said. "Emma and I were the only two who hit the start on time, and we basically had to pump the whole first reach. I rounded the first mark in front, but I was so exhausted that she got past me on the downwind. By the finish we'd both fallen off the foil and were desperately trying to get across the line. It was incredibly challenging but also really fun. I was absolutely puffed afterwards."
Bright, daughter of Kiwi Olympic windsurfing great Barbara Kendall, puts much of her rapid improvement down to training daily alongside fellow Kiwis Veerle ten Have, who made her Olympic debut in Marseille in 2024, and under-23 world champion Stella Bilger. "I think what's elevated me has definitely been my training partners," she said. "We push each other so much. We're travelling the world together, staying together and competing against the best girls in the world almost every week. I think it's all that time training and racing at the highest level that's made everything start to click."
She is measured about what comes next. "My season's going pretty well so far, and I'm just having a good time. I've got really good training partners, and I'm trying to enjoy it and have a good life balance rather than making everything too intense. I just take it competition by competition. I always want to leave everything out on the race course, because I never want to finish a regatta thinking I had something left in the tank." Fitness, she acknowledges, is one area still to develop after running low in the final races.
The broader New Zealand results in Long Beach were strong. Ten Have finished ninth and Bilger 10th in the women's iQFOiL fleet, while Eli Liefting placed eighth among the men. Josh Armit finished 15th after narrowly missing the medal series, with Blake Hinsley 30th. In Formula Kite, Lukas Walton-Keim was 15th, Toby Wigglesworth 25th, and Lucy Bilger 18th.
The Long Beach silver caps a week of good results for New Zealand sailing. Bella Jenkins and Jess Handley were crowned women's under-19 world champions and claimed the Nations Cup at the 29er Worlds in Germany. Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush then defended their 49er European title, and Sean Herbert took wingfoil silver at the Wingfoil Racing World Cup in Italy, the first World Cup medal of his career.
