Fighting chance
Medal hopes make a move at Youth Worlds.
13 December 2017
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420 Boys sailors Otto Henry and Rome Featherstone are in pole position after securing a second and a first placing on the second day or racing at the 2017 Youth Sailing World Championships at Sanya, China.
The pair finished behind Americans Thomas Rice and Trevor Bornath in race three, but scored a bullet in the next race to leap into the lead by four nett points in the 26-boat fleet.
Another Australian duo, brother and sister Shannon and Jayden Dalton, are in second position in the Nacra 15, four nett point away from leaders Lucas Claeyssens and Anne Vandenberghe of Belgium.
Elsewhere, Laura Harding and Eleanor Grimshaw are 13th in the 420 Girls, Henry Larkings and Miles Davey are 6th in the 29er Boys, Jasmin Galbraith and Chloe Fisher are 29er Girls, Caelin Winchcombe is 15th in the Laser Radial Boys and Elyse Ainsworth is 16th in the Laser Radial Girls.
Windsurfers Alex Halank and Hailey Lea are 22nd and 18th, respectively, in their RS:X events.
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New Zealander Josh Armit might be forgiven for thinking it was groundhog day. The 16-year-old was first and 14th in his two races in the boy’s Laser Radial yesterday – identical to his results on the opening day. It left him in third overall, six points behind Italy’s Guido Gallinaro in lead with three days remaining at the youth worlds.
Armit, who is the under-17 Laser Radial world champion, was the best placed of the 14-strong NZL Sailing Foundation youth team competing in China.
Annabelle Rennie-Younger is still in the mix in the girl’s Laser Radial, but slipped two places to fifth overall. It didn’t help she was disqualified in the first race of the day, her discard for her worst result of the regatta, but rebounded strongly with a fourth in the second race.
The top two sailors in the fleet – American Charlotte Rose (3 points) and Dolores Moreira Fraschini from Uruguay (7 pts) – have jumped out from the rest of the field but Rennie-Younger is only three points off third. Her disqualification has put some pressure on and she can’t really afford another slip-up with 41 sailors in the fleet.
Seb Lardies and Scott McKenzie made the biggest progress of any New Zealand crew yesterday, jumping from 16th to seventh in the boy’s 29er. The pair, who were expected to be in the mix after winning the US 29er national championships and finishing fifth at this this year’s 29er world championships, banked a second and third yesterday but will be disappointed to round it out with a 17th.
There’s still plenty of time for them to push for a podium finish but they will need to sail consistently well over the final three days to be in the mix.
Greta Stewart and Henry Haslett are the only other Kiwi crew inside the top 10 and are currently eighth in the Nacra 15. The catamaran class is presently being led by Belgium’s Anne Vandenberghe and helm Lucas Claeyssens who, at 14, is one of the youngest of the 374 sailors competing in Sanya.
Racing continues today on the waters off Hainan Island in the far south of China.
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Hard fought victory
