World Youth Championships

by SailRaceWin

The Takapuna Worlds, just completed off Auckland's North Shore, saw a series of World Championships for Olympic classes (RS:X, Tornados and Laser Radials). Under ISAF regulations, the Youth events were not classified as World Championships as such, but provided up and coming young sailors the chance to compete in their own event as well as the senior, actual, Worlds.

The Volvo Youth Worlds 2008 take place in Aarhus, on the east coast of Jutland, Denmark, in July. Each country will select a team to represent it in the different classes competing, which include the Laser Radial. Medals are awarded for each class event and there are overall team prizes from the combined results across all classes.

Australia won the 2007 Youth Worlds overall, with Denmark second and the New Zealand team coming in third. On home 'turf', the Danes are looking to improve on their results, but the Kiwis have shown that they are a force to be reckoned with and have their sights set on Gold!

The image above shows the prizewinners from the Female Youth event in Laser Radials at the Takapuna Worlds 2008 - won by the Aussies (Gabrielle King) on a tie break count-back from New Zealand (Cushla Hume-Merry) and with Denmark (Sarah Gunni) in third place.

Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships 2008