Oxford Team Race Academy Success
by Debbie Darling 19 Mar 2014 17:14 GMT
15 March 2014
NSSA Two Boat Team Racing © Nigel Vick
The Oxford Team Race Academy (OTRA) was set up last Autumn with the primary aim to keep 16 – 21 year old dinghy sailors in the sport and to give sailors the opportunity to learn skills which would benefit them on their move into university sailing.
The winter training programme consisted of 4 weekends coached by team racing / match racing expert George Barker, using Fireflies based at Farmoor Reservoir. Thirteen sailors took part in the training with three teams finally selected to compete at the NSSA 2/2 Team Racing event hosted by ODSSA on March 15th.
Twenty teams took part but it was the OTRA teams who maximised on their newly acquired team racing skills. All three teams made it through to the quarter finals where the OTRA Juniors beat Worcester but the OTRA Senior teams were pitted against each other! It took three races for OTRA 2 to defeat OTRA 1.
Both the Academy teams won their semi’s with the ‘seniors’ taking the title 2:1 in the final. Both teams will represent the NSSA in the RYA Twiname Team Racing in October.
OTRA is already planning next winters training programme & will add a junior programme for 13 – 16 year olds.
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