Issue date
One guaranteed medal and three more are up for grabs after the penultimate day of racing today for the NZL Yachting Trust Youth Team competing at the 2015 ISAF Youth World Sailing Championships in Langkawi, Malaysia.
Nick Egnot-Johnson and Jackson Keon have retained their overall lead in the 29er boys division and with one race to go are guaranteed of a podium finish at the prestigious under-18 international regatta.
They sailed three races today and despite opening with a 20th place they bounced back with a 2nd and a 3rd; they can discard the poor result from their points tally.
The boys have locked in a medal with their results today, an impressive achievement with one day to go, although no doubt they will be gunning for gold. The Slovenian crew are only three points behind so it is all on for racing tomorrow.
Jackson Keon confirmed that his day “was pretty good”.
In the SL16 multihull William McKenzie and Tamryn Lindsay are in 3rd. They also have racing tomorrow to look forward to, but unlike the others who all only have one race, the SL16 boys have three gold fleet races on the schedule tomorrow.
It was another good day for the them today scoring 2, 1, 5, 4, and lie seven points behind the Australians in 2nd place.
Yachting New Zealand’s Talent Development Manager, Ian Neely reported being quite proud of his young charges today. “The kids dealt well with the incredibly tricky sailing conditions. The wind varied between 5-15 knots over the day with 30 degree shifts making for some challenging racing.”
Kate and Greta Stewart in the 29er girls described a “character building” day on the water scoring 3, 7, 8. The girls are in a good position going into racing tomorrow with 2nd and 3rd place within reach.
George Gautrey (Boy’s Laser Radial) had a glamour first race scoring a win and pulled the 2nd race back from 25th at the bottom mark to 10th at the finish. Gautrey joins the girls in a hunt for the medals tomorrow currently sitting in 5th with five points to 3rd and seven points to 2nd.
It was a hard day for Ali Nightingale in the Girl’s Laser Radial today posting 24, 29 and she currently sits in 12th place.
Chelsea Rees and Kerensa Jennings (Girl’s 420) described frustrating conditions in race two today. A large shift came through on the 2nd beat, the kind where those who had been near the back around the bottom mark find themselves leading at the top. With a 7th and a 15th they currently sit in 7th going into the last day of racing tomorrow. Their training partners Jono Weston and Taylor Balogh posted 10, 17 and currently sit in 13th overall.
New Zealand’s collective results put the 2015 NZL Yachting Trust Youth Team in 3rd in the race for the Nations Trophy.
2015 ISAF Youth World Sailing Championships
NZL Yachting Trust Youth Team current standings
1st Jackson Keon and Nick Egnot-Johnson – 29er boys – (5, 9, 8, 1, 1, 1, 5, 1, 1, 20, 2, 3)
3rd Tamryn Lindsay and William Mckenzie – SL16 – (2, 4, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 2, 1, 5, 4)
4th Greta and Kate Stewart – 29er girls – (6, 8, 4, 1, 2, 2, 5, 9, 7, 3, 7, 8)
4th George Gautrey – Laser Radial boys – (7, 2, 3, OCS, 9, 16, 1, 10)
7th Kerensa Jennings and Chelsea Rees – 420 girls – (5, 2, 21, 12, 15, 1, 7, 15)
12th Ali Nightingale – Laser Radial girls – (1, 19, 4, 5, 11, 18, 24, 29)
11th Lauren Mackenzie – RS:X girls – (5, 15, 10, 8, 9, 9, 10, 12, 14, 14, 12, 12)
13th Jono Weston and Taylor Balogh – 420 boys – 14th (18, 19, 5, 2, 18, 20, 10, 16)
21st Finn Croft – RS:X boys – (20, 20, 16, 14, 19, 21, 22, 8, 17, 7, 13, 13)
Full results at isafyouthworlds.com/results/index.php
More about the ISAF Youth World Championships
The ISAF Youth World Championships feature racing for up and comers under 19 years of age and includes the Laser Radial, RS:X, 29er, 420 and SL16 classes. The regatta will gather together the world’s best youth sailors and will run from 27 December 2015 through until 3 January 2016 on the Malaysian island of Langkawi.
Plenty of the world’s best known yachtsmen and women have competed and medalled at the ISAF Youth World Championships which date back to 1971.
Among the list of New Zealanders to have stood on the ISAF Youth Worlds podium are Jo Aleh (2004 Silver, Laser Radial), Sir Russell Coutts (1979 Silver, Laser and 1981 Gold, Laser), Blair Tuke (2007 Silver, 29er), Dean Barker (1990 Gold, Laser and 1991 Silver, Laser) and Stuart Bannatyne (1989 Gold, Laser).
The ISAF run event is coming to the southern hemisphere for the first time in 15 years and as a consequence the NZL Yachting Trust Youth Team missed Christmas and New Year in New Zealand. The last time the regatta was hosted south of the equator was in 2000 in Sydney, Australia.
The team is proudly supported by the following…
NZL Yachting Trust, Oceanbridge Shipping, ZHIK, HPSNZ
