Future stars at Youth Sailing World Championships

Sanya, China (December 10, 2017) – The 2017 Youth Sailing World Championships has attracted 374 sailors from 60 nations to compete among the nine events on December 11 to 15.

At the opening ceremony today, each nation participated in the mixing of the waters ceremony. Every team brought water from their home waters and these were mixed together, symbolising each nation coming together at the Youth Worlds, embodying sportsmanship, team spirit and unity.

An evening of Chinese themed entertainment followed with national dancers and singers taking to the stage to entertain the competitors.

In a slight twist to Youth Worlds Opening Ceremony ‘protocol’ sailors were welcomed up onto the stage to deliver some karaoke!

Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA was successfully sung by the American team with Spanish, Turkish and Italian (to name but a few) national songs played out across the hundreds of speakers around the venue.

After months of training, thousands of air miles to get to China and two days of intense boat work and training it will all come down to the next five days for the athletes.

Nine events competing:
29er Men
420 Men
Laser Radial Men
RS:X Men
29er Women
420 Women
Laser Radial Women
RS:X Women
Nacra 15 Open

Event details – Entry list – Facebook – Twitter

Teams: Canada – United States

About the Youth Worlds
The Youth Sailing World Championship was first held in Angelholm, Sweden in 1971 where 16 nations competed for the inaugural titles in the two-person dinghies, 420 and Flipper.

As the regatta evolved further classes were added to bring the best young sailing talent across the world together in one place and in 1984 the Mistral windsurfer was added to the list of events with Knut Budig (GER) taking the first gold medal in San Diego, California.

Open to sailors aged 19 and under the 47th version of the Youth Worlds heads to the Sanya, China from 9-16 December as the stars of the future are born once again.

Past notable winners include American’s Cup skippers, Chris Dickson (NZL), Russell Coutts (NZL), Dean Barker (NZL); Olympic medallists, Ben Ainslie (GBR), Robert Scheidt (BRA), Alessandra Sensini (ITA), Iain Percy (GBR) and Elise Rechichi (AUS); Volvo Ocean Race sailors like Stuart Bannatyne (NZL) and Richard Clarke (CAN). The most successful Youth World Champions are Great Britain’s Sally Cuthbert and Poland’s Zofia Klepacka having won four successive titles in the Laser II and Mistral respectively.

Italy is the current holder of the Nations Trophy, awarded annually to the top performing nation at the Youth Worlds. The Nations Trophy was first introduced in 1991 and in 1999 became the Volvo Trophy until 2010. France is the most successful nation through the history of the Championship, winning the Nations Trophy on a record eleven occasions and holding a record 76 medals: 28 gold, 30 silver and 18 bronze.

Source: World Sailing