Topper Midland Area Championships at Sutton Sailing Club
by Sutton SC 11 Jul 2009 08:05 BST
Matt Venables wins the Midlands Area Topper Championships at Sutton Park © Sutton SC
Sutton star claims Midlands title
Sutton Sailing Club hosted the Midlands Area Topper Championships sponsored by www.Purplemarine.com last weekend and young sailors from across the region converged on Powells Pool in Sutton Park for the annual event. The wind was light and variable, creating challenging sailing conditions that required technical sailing from the participants.
13 year-old Sutton sailor Matt Venables claimed the title with two wins out of three races, beating 16 year-old National Topper Inland Champion Pete Newbury of Earlswoood Lakes Sailing Club into second place overall.
Matt had been runner-up for the title in 2008 but this year he made sure of the title, reading the conditions well and opening up an impressive lead in both of the first two races. Matt, a pupil at Fairfax school, is off to Austria to compete in the Topper World Championships later this month.
Sutton sailors Dan Venables (11) and Calum Healey (13) also sailed well ending in fourth and sixth positions respectively and Alexander Hughes (9) also of Sutton Sailing Club was the top placed under-10 in a very respectable twelfth position.