Winners of the RYA Sail for Gold good luck card competition announced
by Susie NationGrainger, RYA 18 May 2012 14:45 BST
18 May 2012
Winners of the RYA Sail for Gold 'good luck' card competition © RYA
Three lucky youngsters will enjoy a once in a lifetime opportunity when they get to personally wish members of the British Sailing Team ’good luck’ at the Games, after being named winners of the RYA Sail for Gold ‘good luck’ card competition.
Millie Irish (8) from Warwickshire, Toby Widdows (9) from Gloucester and Abby Hanna (16) from Suffolk have all designed inspirational good luck cards to give Team GB sailors encouragement when they are competing out on the water in the London 2012 Games.
After receiving some 100 entries, RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park was given the very difficult job of choosing the winning design in each of the three age categories. “We received loads of really fantastic entries for the competition so choosing just three winners was extremely hard” he explained.
“It is great to see so many youngsters getting behind the team and sending their good luck messages. The support means so much to the whole team. It really is inspirational for the sailors when they wake up during the Games to see all the messages of ‘good luck’ on cards and postcards”.
Abby who won the 13-16 year old age group, with a beautifully designed card featuring a Paralympic boat and a shiny gold medal said: “I really enjoyed making the card and using my skills for something so positive. I enjoy sailing and I’m looking forward to being able to present it to our team. It will be a real honour and hopefully they like it too!”
Toby, winner of the 9-12 age group designed a very patriotic card featuring his favourite members of the team when he visited the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show. Toby said: “I'm very excited at my special opportunity to visit Weymouth to meet all the awesome GB sailors and give them my good luck card - I hope it helps them win all their races”.
While Mille, winner of the 5-8 age category managed to impress the judging panel with her very firm message to the team-good luck but win!
“I couldn’t believe it when I found out I’d won. I would love the whole team to win medals at the Olympics” she said.
The three youngsters will be presenting their winning cards to members of the British Sailing Team in June at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth.
The Sail for Gold initiative aims to bring the excitement of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to sailing clubs and training centres across the country in the lead up to and during the Games.
For more information visit www.rya.org.uk/sailforgold