News

Youth Worlds Day 5: Proud Australians Secure Podium Spots

Published Sat 21 Jul 2018

The Australian Youth Team will leave the 2018 Youth World Championships in Texas with a silver medal and two bronze medals after an intense final day of racing at Corpus Christi.

Otto Henry and Rome Featherstone, winners at last year’s event, secured the 420 boys silver medal prior to the final race on Sunday morning (AEST) and Henry Larkings and Miles Davey won the bronze medal in the 29er boys class. Zac Littlewood, who won the Laser Radial World Championship in Germany last month, came within a point of pinching the silver medal, but did well to win bronze.

“I had to get 5^th or better and beat (the Argentinian sailor) by two spots,” Littlewood said of his task in the final race.

“He match-raced me pre-start and I didn’t have a very good start. But I came back, I was about 20^th at the top mark and then about 8^th the whole race. Then, at the last mark, I was 6^th and needed one more spot and the guy in front me just crossed in front.

“I wasn’t nervous about the race, I just knew what I had to do and tried my best but just couldn’t do it. I made a few mistakes throughout the week, which cost me and today I lost second by a point. But it’s onwards and upwards from here.”

Littlewood said he was looking forward to going home and reflecting on his recent efforts, as well as catching up on school work.

Larkings and Davey faced an anxious wait after their last race to find out if they’d won bronze.

“Not knowing, it was pretty nerve-wracking to find out,” Larkings said.

“It’s pretty surreal at the moment. I don’t really know what it’s going to feel like until we’re up there (on the podium).”

Davey said a high quality fleet made for tough competition throughout the regatta.

“We had a UFD so it was hard to stay up there. But we managed to, so it was good. … It was pretty emotional,” Davey said.

Davey said his plan was to take up windsurfing. Larkings said he would focus on school and start sailing in the 49er.

Defending champions Henry and Featherstone were justifiably pleased with winning the silver medal.

“We started off a little bit slow, but came back from there and enjoyed the conditions,” Henry said.

“We sailed a great week and did the best we could. I thought it ended up pretty well.”

Featherstone said: “We struggled to put away a win because of the Americans. I’m not sure what they were doing but they were pretty fast. But, yesterday, in the race that decided if we solidified silver, we won it, so that was a pretty good note to finish on. It was tough – the whole week has been, I guess.”

Henry’s next focus is the 420 Open Worlds and Featherstone’s is finishing school.

All the Australians did their best until the end, with 29er girls crew Alice Buchanan and Dervla Duggan ending up in the top 10, Maddie O’Shea finishing strongly in the Laser Radial girls fleet to grab 12^th and Nacra 15 crew Will Cooley and Evie Haseldine capturing their best result of the regatta, 2^nd, in the last race. Windsurfers Amelia Quinlan and Alex Halank found the competition tough but never gave up.

Australia came 8^th in the Nations Trophy, which was won by the United States.