British ISAF Youth Worlds team announced
by Imogen Stanley 1 Sep 2015 10:16 BST
29-31 August 2015
The RYA ISAF Youth Worlds Selection Event (29-31 August) drew to a close on Monday (31 August) after three days of great race action at Hayling Island Sailing Club.
A team of 12 selected sailors will represent the British Youth Sailing Team at the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships, Langkawi, Malaysia (27 December – 3 January 2016). Although many of the selected sailors have competed at the EUROSAF Youth Sailing Championships over the past couple of years, all will be attending the ISAF Youth Worlds for the very first time.
Christchurch windsurfers Daniel and Emma Wilson were both selected to represent the British Youth Sailing Team in the boys' and girls' windsurfing classes.
Emma who won the event convincingly, she hopes to continue her winning form in Malaysia said: "I am pretty happy, I wanted to go to Malaysia the whole time and I have done it so that's good.
"I want to medal when I go, I hate coming fourth after Poland and I know I can do it."
At the RS:X Youth World Championships earlier this year, Emma finished a disappointing fourth in Gdynia, Poland, a result, she does not wish to repeat.
Older brother Daniel faced fierce competition from Andy Brown (Largs) and James Hatcher (Bristol Corinthian) although still managed to come out on top: "Both have improved a lot over the summer, Andy has had a couple of good results and has a lot of confidence at the moment. James is our training partner so knows how to race. It was always going to be tough whatever."
After winning here in Hayling, Daniel now looks forward to competing for medals at the ISAF Youth Worlds: "I'm pretty happy with my results here. Hopefully we can now go on to Malaysia, where I want to win a medal."
The girls' 29er class was the closest of all the selection spots. The top four boats were within just a couple of points of each other as the final race began, any could come out on top and be victorious. Courtney Bilbrough and Harriet Ward (HISC) won the final race to win the event with Hattie Rogers and Emma Loveridge (Royal Lymington) in second.
As they sailed in they were still unsure on their final finish place explained Bilbrough: "I kind of had an idea after three races that it was really close. Once we finished we spent the whole of the way in trying to calculate if we had won or not. We didn't want to celebrate until we knew.
"We thought we had won but we weren't sure as the points were so close."
After a disqualification earlier in the week, they have been playing catch up so the win was a little unexpected said Ward: "I don't know how I feel, we weren't really expecting it. We are really happy I guess but it was really tough. Our main boat was Hattie and Emma so we were trying to make sure we were covering them."
The boys' 29er class also came down to the wire, George Tardrew (HISC) and Freddie Simes (Bewl Vally) took the final advantage and will be representing the British Youth Sailing Team in Malaysia at the end of the year, which will be their third international event as a team.
Dan Whiteley (Pwllheli) has been aiming for the ISAF Youth Worlds since he started youth sailing, last year he tried for selection in the 420 but didn't make it. This year, he achieved his goal and will be heading out to the ISAF Youth Worlds to compete against the best youth sailors from around the world.
"I'm pretty ecstatic, it's a good feeling. I remember the Optimist Worlds there a couple of years ago and wished I could go so know it's a bit of a dream come true to head out to Malaysia especially for the ISAF Youth Worlds," said Whiteley.
It wasn't all plain sailing for Whiteley: "Ben [Whaley] and Milo [Gill-Taylor] pushed me the whole way, Jamie [Calder] had some pretty good races towards the end. It's good to win with this level of competition."
Ben Whaley finished his week in second and Milo Gill-Taylor was third.
Hanna Brant (Oxford SC) represented Great Britain at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China last year. This year she will head to the ISAF Youth Worlds in Malaysia to race in the girls' Laser Radial after a closely fought battle with Karyna Manuel (Grafham Water).
Max Clapp and Ross Banham (Royal Southern) won the boys' 420 with a race to spare securing their place in the team. Although the results show a clear lead, racing has been a challenge said Clapp: "It's been pretty tough in a small fleet because it has been pretty steady. It has been easy to find clean wind and there are a group of people who are quick and always seem to be at the front. So it was hard to stop them from being there."
This is their first ISAF Youth Worlds and Banham is looking forward to taking part: "I'm excited because it is an event we have never been to before and it's basically the best one sailor from every nation, which makes it even more exciting because the racing will be so hard but really fun at the same time."
Jenny Cropley (Royal Lymington) and Emma Baker (Weir Wood) will also be attending the ISAF Youth Worlds for the first time, the EUROSAF Youth Sailing silver medallists match raced friends Isabel Davies and Gemma Keers (Itchenor) out of the girls' 420 race to secure their spot explains Baker: "We tried to start near them then pinch them out at the start, we then sailed them off the course in one race so that they didn't tack because we would have tacked on them."
Taking on their friends was hard but stands them in good stead for the tough competition in Malaysia said Cropley: "It would be easier doing it against someone we didn't know or weren't such good friends with, it was quite hard.
"We just did what we had to do, anyone would have done what we did. Only one boat could win."
Oli Woodcock, the Team Leader said: "I think we have a really strong team heading out to Malaysia with a lot of fresh faces. We are going to work with all of the sailors to create tailored training plans we need to make sure they work around their school commitments. We will then meet once as a team in December.
"I think we have a good chance of medals in a lot of the classes and I'm really looking forward to working with them all over the next few months."
British Youth Sailing Team for the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship, Langkawi, Malaysia: (27 December 2015 – 3 January 2016)
Laser Radial
Daniel Whiteley (Pwllheli)
Hanna Brant (Oxford SC)
RS:X
Dan Wilson
Emma Wilson
420
Max Clapp (Royal Southern) and Ross Banham (Bewl Valley)
Jenny Cropley (Royal Lymington) and Emma Baker (Weir Wood)
29er
George Tardrew (HISC) and Freddie Simes (Bewl Valley)
Courtney Bilbrough and Harriet Ward (HISC)
You can see the full results on the website, British Youth Sailing Team Facebook page and Twitter @RYAYouthRacing.