News

Youth Worlds Day 1: Australian 29er Crew Shoot To Early Lead

Published Tue 17 Jul 2018

Henry Larkings and Miles Davey have set the pace for Australia at the Youth World Championships at Corpus Christi in Texas, sailing to first place in the boys 29er class.

Larkings and Davey, who are competing at their second Youth Worlds, began perfectly, claiming a bullet in their opening race and followed up with two second placings to lead by one point from the crew from New Zealand.

Recently-crowned Laser Radial World Champion Zac Littlewood is well positioned in 3^rd place in the 58-boat Radial fleet, after starting off with a win and scoring 8 in the second and final race of the day. Littlewood, who stunned the seniors at Kiel in Germany to win the world title, is a point adrift of the leaders from the US and Italy.

“It was great to get underway with racing today,” Team Leader Tristan Brown said.

“Our team had a bit of a mixed bag, with some outstanding performances and some big learnings for our sailors on Day 1.”

In the boys 420 class, defending world champions Otto Henry and Rome Featherstone are placed 8^th in the 23-boat fleet after scoring 8 and 7 in the opening two races.

Alice Buchanan and Dervla Duggan are mid-fleet in the girls 29er, as are Will Cooley and Evie Haseldine in the Nacra 15.

Two races were held in the girls Laser Radial class, where Maddy O’Shea 11^th in the 46-boat fleet. Alex Halank is 19^th in the RSX boys and Amelia Quinlan 16^th in the RSX girls.

Unfortunately, 420 girls crew Matilda Richardson and Lily Richardson had to withdraw from the regatta due to illness.

How the Aussies are placed:

29er boys -

Larkings/Davey – 1, (2), 2 – 1^st

29er girls –

Buchanan/Duggan – 12, (UFD), 8 – 13^th

420 boys –

Henry/Featherstone - 8, 7 – 8^th

Nacra 15 –

Cooley/Haseldine - 14, 7, (DNF) – 13th

Laser Radial girls –

Maddy O’Shea – 10, 11 – 11^th