Volvo Musto Optimist National Championships at Largs - Day 4

Guernsey girl & Scottish lad lead charge for Volvo Musto British Optimist Nationals glory

Guernsey sailor Johanna Asplund strengthened her grip on the girls’ Volvo Musto Optimist British National Championship title before admitting she would still be happy to finish the prestigious event in the top three at Largs Sailing Club.

The 14-year-old Guernsey YC talent sits in pole position in the race for the girls’ National crown – as well as laying second girl overall in the British Open competition behind American leader Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick – boasting a number of impressive top 10 finishes from her eight races so far including an awesome race victory in tricky breeze yesterday (Tuesday 11 August).

Some of Britain’s most illustrious Olympians have passed through the Optimist class on their way to the biggest prize in World sport including triple Olympic Champion Ben Ainslie, two-time Olympic gold medallists Iain Percy and Sarah Ayton and Andrew Simpson, who claimed Beijing 2008 Star class victory alongside Percy.

But with two days of racing still to come Asplund, who sits ahead of fellow Brits Megan Brickwood (Hayling Island SC) in second and Sara Doust (Cardiff Bay YC), is not getting carried away by the thought of becoming British Champion just yet.

She said: “It has been a good week and winning the race yesterday was the biggest race I’ve ever won and definitely the highlight of my week so far. I was second all the way round the course but on the last little beat I was able to keep my concentration, keep working really hard and not make any mistakes to get ahead and come first.

“I’ve not really been as consistent as I would have liked to have been throughout the week though so for the rest of the week I’ll just be trying to make sure I can stay in the top 20 and be a bit more consistent. My goal before the event was to finish in the top three British girls and I will still be happy to do that.”

It is turning into a ding dong battle for the boys’ National title with 14-year-old local lad Callum Airlie, from East Lothian Yacht Club, currently in the ascendency at the top of the British pile and second overall behind American Roger Dorr.

Burghfield SC’s Josh Voller, 13, enjoyed a temporary tenure at the top of the overall rankings – a first race victory today seeing him leapfrog Dorr – but Dorr and Airlie hit back in the final two races of the day to see Voller lying third overall – second Brit – at the close of play with Oliver Grogono (St Mawes) fourth overall and third Brit.

Tomorrow Ben Ainslie, the four-time Olympic medallist and five-time Finn class World champion, will be at Largs sharing advice and passing on tips to the youngsters about the boat in which he began his celebrated career.

More than 350 sailors from as far afield as the USA, the United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe have descended on Largs for what is the 48th Optimist British Open National Championships, which run until Friday 14 August.

This is the ninth year Volvo and Musto have jointly sponsored the Optimist Sailing Class in the UK and includes support for three major annual championships: The Volvo Musto Inland Championships (16-17 May 2009), the Volvo Musto National Championships (7-14 August) and the Volvo Musto End of Season Championships (10-11 October).

Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow 10.55am - the event will consist a maximum of 12 races for the Senior and Junior fleets.

For full results visit www.optimistsailing.org.uk