Order Firming at Youth Sailing Worlds

Auckland, New Zealand (December 19, 2016) – With five gold medals confirmed in the nine events at the 2016 Aon Youth World Sailing Championships, there is still a lot to play for with a host of medals up for grabs tomorrow when racing concludes.

Australia’s Finnian Alexander has a commanding lead of 27 points in the boy’s Laser Radial and will secure the gold barring a disaster on the final day. The only reason the Aussie isn’t celebrating with the other gold medallists is that he has been carrying a disqualification from the very first race, that means a bad result could send him crashing down the fleet.

Paolo Giargia (ITA) is second with Carrson Pearce (USA) and Ismael Iess Falcon (ESP) seven points back. All three will be hoping the Aussie does have that final race disaster to give them a chance of snatching the top spot.

The girl’s Laser Radial is still tight at the top with Germany’s Hannah Anderssohn a single point ahead of Uruguay’s Rio 2016 flag bearer, Dolores Moreira Fraschini. Third place is the 2015 Youth Worlds champion Maria Erdi (HUN). The defending champion pulled herself back in to contention with two second places to leave her five points of top. Sandra Luli (CRO) is also within striking distance and will compete for a medal.

The 2015 girl’s 420 champions, Poland’s Julia Szmit and Hanna Dzik, are in pole position to defend their title and have an eight point lead over Alexandra Stalder and Silvia Speri (ITA) in second. The two teams will fight for gold.

The Italian team will need to be careful though while fighting for gold, they are also at threat of missing out on a medal altogether with a bad result. Olivia Belda and Marina Arndt (BRA), Violette Dorange and Camille Orion (FRA) and Kathryn Hall and Ashton Borcherding (USA) are all in contention for medals and will apply the pressure to the Italians.

In the boy’s 29er France’s Gwendal Nael and Lilian Mercier take a four point advantage over second placed Crispin Beaumont and Tom Darling (GBR) in to the key final race shoot out.

Australia’s John Colley and Simon Hoffman are just out of reach of gold, but are 11 points from silver. They also have a 12 point cushion back to fourth and will push the British on the final day to see if they can take a step up on the podium.

Radial and 420 fleets have 9 races scheduled with 13 races planned for the Nacra 15, RS:X, and 29er fleets. The final races are scheduled for 09:55 local time on Tuesday December 20 out of the Torbay Sailing Club.

Event details – Scoreboard – Live blog – Facebook – Canada team – USA team

 
Open to competitors under the age of 19 years, 389 sailors from 65 nations will compete December 16 to 20 in the 46th edition of this event. Countries can have only one entry in each of the nine disciplines: 29er Men and Women, 420 Men and Women, Laser Radial Men and Women, RS:X Men and Women, and Nacra 15 Open.

Source: World Sailing