Top 8 Advance at Youth Match Racing Worlds

Noumea, New Caledonia (June 16, 2016) – Thirty-three matches sailed in a steady 20-25 knot wind in the lee of Ilôt Maître concluded the round robin stage for the 10 teams competing at the 2016 Youth Match Racing World Championship.

After three days of competition, leading the way for the top 8 teams in to the quarter final stages are Australia who hold the top two positions from the qualifying rounds. The home crew skippered by Cyril Fortin (FRA) dropped down to third position overall following a perfect round robin start on day one.

The Japanese crew, skippered by Ryo Takahashi, and the French crew, skippered by Robin Follin, made great comebacks in the dying stages to finish fourth and fifth respectively and could meet in the quarter final match ups as only the top three can choose their opponents.

The eight quarter finalists
1) Australia (Will Dargaville/ Royal Prince Albert Yacht Club)
2) Australia (Harry Price/CYCA)
3) France (Cyril Fortin/Cercle Nautique Calédonien)
4) Japan (Rio Takahashi)
5) France (Robin Follin)
6) Nouvelle-Zealand (Matthew Hughes/ Royal New-Zealand Yacht Squadron)
7) United States (Christophe Killian/ Balboa Yacht Club)
8) Nouvelle-Zealand (Oakley Marsh/ Royal Nicholson Yacht Club)

Second round robin review
The crews knocked out of the qualifiers are the Danish team, which included a 2014 World Champion crew member in Lars-Peter Rosendalh, and the Americans helmed by Charlie Lalumiere, ranked World #44.

The Australians from RPAYC won eight matches out of nine and so beat their fellow countrymen from CYCA into second place.

The Japanese crew of Ryo Takahashi were much improved. In the first round they had five victories out of nine matches, whereas they were first in the second round winning eight matches out of nine. At the end of the qualifiers, they finish in fourth place.

The New Caledonians, having won all their matches in the first round, lost four times in the second. They are third overall. The team are still considered outsiders for the title.

The French, helmed by Robin Follin, French Universities Champion in 2016 and SB20 World Champion in 2015, also did well in the second round.

The quarter finals take place on day four.

Event details – Scoreboard – Twitter – Facebook

Source: World Sailing