Penultimate day of Youth Sailing Worlds

Mussanah, Oman (December 16, 2021) – Warm winds touching just over 10 knots today provided the best breeze of the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championships so far, with gold medals decided in five of the 11 events. Tomorrow is the final day of racing for the 433 sailors from 59 nations.

Mixed Two Person Multihull Nacra 15
Kay Brunsvold and Cooper Delbridge (USA) have taken the yellow jersey off the French team, Thomas Proust and Eloïse Clabon (FRA). With a single point’s advantage to the Americans, watch out for a match race between USA and France. That said, the Nacra 15 fleet still has two races to run tomorrow. Waiting in the wings are the Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium who are still able to pounce on gold.

Female Skiff 29er
Emily Mueller and Florence Brellisford (GBR) snatched back the yellow jersey from Charlie Leigh and Sophie Fisher (USA), a race win giving the British a 5 point advantage going into the final day. Alja Petric and Katja Filipic (SLO) hold third overall ahead of Denmark.

Male Skiff 29er
Hugo Revil and Karl Devaux (FRA) are well positioned to confirm gold tomorrow, holding a ten point lead on Mateo and Simon Codoñer Alemany (ESP), but only two points separate the Spaniards from another sibling team of  Ian and Noah Nyenhuis (USA).

Male One Person Dinghy ILCA 6
José Gomes Saraiva Mendes (POR) extended his advantage over Sebastian Kempe (BER) after the Bermudian became one of many to fall foul of the dreaded black flag at the start. Kempe bounced back from black flag disappointment with a bullet in the next race and maintains silver position with a four point lead over Przemyslaw Machowski (POL). Two points off the podium and with a better discard than Bermuda and Poland is Luka Zabukovec (SLO).

Female Two Person Dinghy 420
Neus Ballester Bover and Andrea Perello Mora (ESP) have won the gold medal with a race to spare. Vanessa Lahrkamp and Katherine McNamara (USA) won the last race of the session and now move into silver position ahead of Manon Pennaneac’h and Victoire Lerat (FRA).

“It’s great to win in this strong fleet,” said Perello. “The Americans are the World Champions in the class and there are so many strong teams, the French, the Italians.” Ballester revealed the secret to their success: “We felt relaxed all week. We enjoyed ourselves and really liked the conditions in Oman. Super tricky and hard to read the wind, but I was head out of the boat all the time, looking around for the best wind.”

Neus is the daughter of José Luis Ballester who won a medal for Spain in the Tornado catamaran in Atlanta 1996. She couldn’t remember what color though. “Gold,” her crew reminded her, rolling her eyes. “Your father won gold!” Perello shouted, exasperated but laughing. Now Perello and the next generation of the Ballester family have won their own gold.

Male/Mixed Two Person Dinghy 420
Kaito Ikeda and Shun Shigematsu (JPN) sailed a good day to rise to fourth place overall in the Mixed 420 class. However, the medals look most likely to go to the current top three of Spain, Israel, and Germany. With such a narrow points gap, it could go either way but it’s still Ian Clive Walker March with Finn Dicke (ESP) who are looking to match the gold medal winning performance of their female 420 team mates. Roi Levy and Ariel Gal (ISR) are just three points off the lead, and Florian Krauss and Jannis Summchen (GER) are two points off silver.

Female One Person Dinghy ILCA 6
After two individual race wins by Emerging Nations sailors on Wednesday, another EN competitor from Peru, Florencia Chiarella (PER) has turned on the afterburner on her Ziegelmeyer ILCA 6 dinghy. Scores of 4 and 3 have rocketed the Peruvian up to first overall, with a 15 point buffer on Anja von Allmen (SUI).

However, Chiarella can’t afford any major errors on the final day because she’s currently discarding a UFD disqualification worth a hefty 47 points. Zulal Alev Erkan (TUR) is in bronze medal position but still within a shot of gold if Peru and Switzerland slip up on banana skins.

Female Windsurfer Bic Techno 293+
Manon Pianazza (FRA) has won windsurfing gold with an unbroken 11 race wins. “I’m super happy, very pleased with my performance this week,” said the French sailor who is looking to campaign the iQFOiL windsurfer for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024. Kristyna Chalupnikova (CZE) needs to sail a solid day tomorrow to make sure she retains silver ahead of Zoe Fernandez de Bobadilla Ramos (ESP) and Lucy Kenyon (GBR).

Male Windsurfer Bic Techno 293+
Federico Alan Pilloni (ITA) was mobbed by his Italian team mates as he landed at Mussanah Beach after sealing windsurfer victory with a day to spare. His fans raised him above their heads on his Bic Techno 293+ board and carried him across the sand chanting Italian football anthems. “What a welcome! I am so lucky to be part of this team,” smiled Pilloni. “It’s been a great week and a lot of fun to be here.”

Boris Shaw (GBR) scored a string of seconds to wrap the silver medal for Great Britain and Ozan Turker (TUR) will be hard to beat for the bronze.

Male Kiteboarding Formula Kite
The usually calm and collected Max Maeder (SGP) went crazy as he crossed the finish line this afternoon. The Singaporean had bounced back from a difficult start to the competition, dominating the latter stages and winning the gold medal with a day to spare.

“That wasn’t easy. The first day was a blunder I never want to repeat. I overestimated myself, I guess, and maybe I was complacent. To come back was hard, I had to give it everything but now it feels great. Today completely neutralizes that first day. It feels phenomenal. This is a feeling that will never get old.”

In the 50 year history of the Youth Worlds, this is kitefoiling’s first time in the event, and it’s by far the fastest and most furious form of sailing ever seen at youth level. “You need high reaction speed, and a certain level of physical courage because you have no protection from a hull,” said the 15 year old. “It’s just you and the board. When you get, like, two metres close to someone, you’re like body to body with them with the razor sharp foil right beneath you, doing 32 knots through the water.”

Riccardo Pianosi (ITA) congratulated Maeder but promised he would make his rival work harder for victory next time. The Italian picked up a U Flag disqualification for starting too soon in one race today, meaning Pianosi can’t afford any slip-ups on the final day as he bids to defend silver from Mikhail Novikov (RUS) in third place.

Female Kiteboarding Formula Kite
Gal Zukerman (ISR) has won gold with a sensational 16 straight race wins. Following a 10th place in a 420 three years ago at the Youth Worlds, the Israeli switched to kiteboarding two years ago and kitefoiling just over a year ago.

“I have loved every moment of this week,” she smiled. “Kitefoiling is so much fun. I can’t remember when I started sailing, I’m too young to remember that moment. But I have always been sailing boats and now I am loving the kitefoiling.” Julia Damasiewicz (POL) sits in silver but with two retirements currently being discarded from her scores, the Polish sailor can’t afford any slip-ups in case she gets passed by Héloïse Pégourié (FRA) who lurks in third.

Nations Trophy
France leads the ranking of top-performing nations at the Youth Worlds, followed by Spain, Italy, USA, and Great Britain.

A total of 433 sailors from 59 nations are competing in the 11 events on December 13-17.

Day Four Results
(Event – Number of Entries – Equipment – Top North American)

Female Skiff (18) – 29er: 2nd Sophie Fisher/ Charlie Leigh (USA)
Male Skiff (24) – 29er: 3rd Ian Nyenhuis/ Noah Nyenhuis (USA)
Female Two Person Dinghy (19) – 420: 2nd Vanessa Lahrkamp/ Katherine McNamara (USA)
Male/Mixed Two Person Dinghy (22) – 420: 11th Thomas Sitzmann/ Luke Woodworth (USA)
Mixed Two Person Multihull (11) – Nacra 15: 1st Kay Brunsvold/ Cooper Delbridge (USA)
Female One Person Dinghy (46) – ILCA 6: 10th Katharine Doble (USA)
Male One Person Dinghy (50) – ILCA 6: 2nd Sebastian Kempe (BER)
Female Windsurfer (17) – Bic Techno 293+: 16th Danicka Sailer (USA)
Male Windsurfer (18) – Bic Techno 293+: 9th JP Lattanzi (USA)
Female Kiteboarding (10) – Formula Kite: 9th Caroline Locke (USA)
Male Kiteboarding (16) – Formula Kite: 9th Noah Zittrer (USA)

Event details – Results – Tracking

First held in Sweden in 1971, the Youth Sailing World Championships are World Sailing’s flagship event for youth sailors. The 2019 event attracted 409 sailors from 66 nations for the nine events held in Gdynia, Poland. Spain won the Nations Trophy that year, awarded annually to the top-performing nation at the Youth Worlds, followed by France in second and USA in third. The 2020 event was cancelled due to the pandemic.