Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship 2006 - Day 6
by Myrrh Walker, RYA 19 Jul 2006 21:08 BST
12-21 July 2006
All to play for
There is all to play for coming into the last day of the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships, as the extremely variable weather caused many a place change. Discards are proving to be the major focus today as some classes have completed nine races giving them two discards to play with, while others are just on the cusp with only eight races completed, meaning they get just one discard.
The weather model for today showed that there would be wind from the SW in the morning and would decrease dramatically during the afternoon but no one could have predicted the strength of the initial breeze, coming up to 20 knots at times inside the breakwater of the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy but never really getting going outside, a mere ten knots at most. With this in mind, the race officials decided to send all bar the RS:Xs out early to fit the racing in. The Laser were given poll position in the breeze, while the Hobie Cat 16s and 420s battled it out in considerably lighter conditions.
The first gold medals of the event could have been handed out today, to British Hobie Cat 16 sailors, Tom Phipps and Richard Glover. For Tom Phipps this is particularly amazing as it is his second gold medal, placing him firmly in the history books. Joining him is Lukasz Grodzicki the polish RS:X windsurfer who receives the second gold medal of the day to add to the one he gained last year at the Youth Championships in Korea.
Both young sailors were modest about their achievements, which put them up there with the likes of BMW Oracle Skipper Chris Dickson. Phipps commented, “It was a brilliant day today. The first two races were gorgeous Hobie conditions. We were able to capitalise with our boat handling skills and get to the front and stay ahead. The last race was just all over the place but we just managed to hold onto the top spot.”
Unfortunately for the favourites for silver, the Singaporeans, Huang and Quan Chung had a bad day dropping down to fifth. The Aussie pair, Jason Waterhouse and Jeremy Roberts posted three fourths to move into second place overall, whilst five crews lie within ten points of Jenna Mai Hansen and Jonathan Bay from Denmark in third.
The RS:X fleet only managed to get in one race despite trying to start another two. Tensions are high in both the boys and girls fleets. Laura Linares from Italy looks set to take gold despite having her worst race of the event, finishing in tenth. “I had a very bad start and was at the back of the fleet, which was very disappointing as the wind was a good 15 to 18 knots. I managed to catch up about three places during the race, but finished 10th. This will be my second discard and my other discard is a third, so I am still in the lead overall.”
The bronze and silver places in the girls boards swapped again today with Isreal’s Maayan Davidovich jumping back up and Malgorzata Bialecka being relegated, whilst the boys RS:X rankings stayed relatively stable.
The Lasers got in three races before the sudden wind drop at 1300, with the windy conditions giving a few of the smaller youth sailors a bit of a problem and causing a big shake-up in the leaderboard positions. As the sailors have now completed a total of eight races, they get to discard one of their results from their overall total. This even effected the pole position, with Swedish leader Emil Cedergard, who has been leading all week on count back, relegated to second with Canadian Luke Ramsey taking over the top slot.
Cypriot Laser sailor Pavlos Kontides was not in a good mood as he returned to the dinghy park. Kontides has been in a strong third position but after two poor results today he dropped to fifth, just below American Royce Weber and Russian Igor Lisovenka. But all is not lost for the disappointed boys, as if a race is completed tomorrow they will have another discard to play with.
In the Laser Radial fleet Tina Mihelic from Croatia put some more icing on her cake with another great day. The Croatian potentially has won gold as long as she stays on form tomorrow. She giggled, “It is fantastic. I wasn’t sure whether the heavier breeze would be good for me as I am normally not good in it but I do sail in older women’s fleets so I’m normally the smallest. I suppose here I am one of the biggest.” Mihelic has a string of top three places in European events but this could be her first gold at a World Championships for the talented 17-year-old.
All the other competitors are in awe of Milhelic, but none more so than Danish Maiken Foght Schutt in second place. The 18-year-old expressed her delight at sailing here at the Worlds, “I’ve loved it here and I still have one more day to go. It’s so nice to be sailing against Tina she is fantastic. I just have to hold onto silver.” And she certainly has a fight on her hands, as all the rest of the ladies move a little closer – particularly Dutch Marit Bouwmeester who whooped with delight when she found out she moved from 13th yesterday to third today. Bouwmeester spoke of having a shocking week until now.
“I had two really bad days where I got 23rd and didn’t finish a race and even today I capsized. I can’t believe I’ve moved up. I was in first at one point in the second race but I didn’t realise I had to do two laps and went to the wrong mark and ended up seventh. I will have to stick to Maiken tomorrow and not mess up and I’ll be in with a chance of silver.”
It was the same discard story with the 420 fleet as they completed eight races and the hard-working Irish team fell from second to sixth and the Australians, Sam Kivell and Max Taylor replaced them. Taylor described their day, “We were really disappointed after yesterday but when the wind came in we thought it would be good. We like the bigger wind as in Melbourne we have quite a bit. We have to stay in the top ten tomorrow and close to the Israelis to keep our silver.”
At the top of the ladies 420s are the Aussie girls, Belinda Kerl and Chelsea Hall, as they raced to tie their boat down before the evening squalls came in. Hall explained the conditions today, “It was really, really fluky and up and down. We were able to use the boats up in front of us as a guide, but it really was shifty.”
Apart from the Aussies and the second placed Spanish team, Agueda Suria and Marta Martinez Pons, it was all change amongst the lower ranks with Myanmar sailors moving from fifth to third. Su Sandar Wai and Zin April Aung were all smiles after racing, Sandar Wai happily spoke, “I was expecting to do better today as we only got 13th and an eighth but we still moved up. I don’t think we can get a silver but you never know if we get a second discard it could be great!”
Two gold medals may already be decided, but with five gold and a plethora of silvers and bronzes still up for grabs, the tension is certainly building for the final day on the water, tomorrow at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships 2006.
Great Britain bags its first gold medal
On Wednesday’s penultimate day of racing at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, Tom Phipps and Richard Glover have clinched Great Britain’s first gold medal of the event in the Hobie 16 class.
With a day to spare, Falmouth’s Phipps and Weymouth-based Glover have won a gold medal in the 13-boat fleet after executing three convincing bullets on the sixth day of the event. The two boys have a near perfect scorecard counting six first place finishes and only one second place. With eight points overall, they have an unassailable 18-point lead over the Australians Jason Waterhouse and Jeremy Roberts, their closest rivals.
Phipps and Glover came off the water quietly grinning. Phipps explained, “We definitely wanted to come here and win a medal. We hoped to do well but we didn’t expect to do this well. We’re really pleased to have won a gold.”
With a medal in the bag, one might think that the two sailors will be off to celebrate but Phipps and Glover remain focused on competing again tomorrow.
“We will be back on the water tomorrow to compete for the Volvo Trophy awarded to nation with the best overall results. We might have a little dance later but we will be out there racing tomorrow.” Phipps concluded.
At 18, Phipps is competing at his third and last Youth Worlds event before moving into senior level competition. Glover, on the other hand, could well be back to compete at the 2007 Youth Worlds to be held in Ontario, Canada.
Glover explained, “I think we’re both pretty pleased with our result. We did have a home-grown advantage as we sail in these waters all the time and it is essentially our own backyard. Hopefully I will be back next year for the 2007 Youth Worlds, this time competing with my brother.”
British sailors managed to add some top results to the teams already impress overall score, ending themselves that much closer to the Volvo Trophy.
Laser Radial sailor Anna Dobson also had a fantastic day on the water. The Scot had her first ever first place finish and was met with a cheer as she crossed the finish line.
“I’ve never won a race before, I’ve had seconds and thirds, but I’ve never won. It’s great to win at an event where the level of competition is so high.”
Dobson, currently in eighth overall, followed her race win up with a fourth in the second race, another result that she is pleased about.
Welshman Sean Evans got off to a good start in the Laser, scoring a third in the opening race, followed up by an 11th and a discardable 28th.
The 420 fleets got two races on the books today, with GBR’s Richard Mason and Dan Schieber hunting down two top ten results. A seventh place finish in the first race was followed by a second place in their final race of the day keeping them in seventh overall.
Sophie Weguelin and Katrina Hughes also hold their overall position, unable to move out of 12th place. With an 11th and seventh from their races today, the duo will hope to post a good result tomorrow allowing them to drop their low score of 15th.
The RS:X windsurfers got only one race in on the sixth day of the event but remain on schedule. Young Richard Hamilton had a rough start to the morning posting a 13th after sailing over the anchor line of the start boat; however, Hamilton is able to discard the result. The 16-year-old is now five points behind third placed Pierre Le Coq of France, but will have a potential medal on his mind when he competes tomorrow.
“Hopefully I will have a good race tomorrow and possibly have a chance at of a medal.” Hamilton explained.
Liverpool’s Beth Williamson, in seventh overall, had a tenth place finish in the girls fleet getting squeezed out by two places just before the finish line. Williamson also continues to rack up valuable points for the Volvo Trophy.
Great Britain has won the Volvo Trophy twice before, and at the 2006 Youth Worlds they are once again in the running to bring the trophy home. The Italians are currently in first place and have seen strong performances from both their male and female windsurfers. The Brits are not far behind, separated by only six points from the Italians, with the Australian team also chasing down the trophy, only 15 points adrift from the British sailors.
In the battle for the Volvo Trophy, there’s everything left to play for on the final day of racing tomorrow (Thursday), with the Volvo RYA GBR Youth Worlds team still in the hunt for the honour of the being the overall best nation.
Racing continues through to 20 July 2006. Complete results can be found on the event website. Additional information on Volvo RYA Team GBR can be found on the RYA website