Five crews finish inside top 10 at youth worlds

New Zealand finished with five crews inside the top 10 at the youth sailing world championships in Sanya, China, last night.

It was a decent return for the 14-strong team who were contesting all nine youth classes. Josh Armit (boy's Laser Radial) and Annabelle Rennie-Younger (girl's Laser Radial) both narrowly missed out on medals, finishing fifth overall, and Greta Stewart and Henry Haslett finished strongly in the Nacra 15 to be sixth overall.

"To have five classes in the top 10 and with just a short turnaround to the next youth worlds in Corpus Christi in July shows there's plenty of medal-capable sailors in there," Yachting New Zealand youth co-ordinator Stuart Thomas said. "We had two classes in with a shot of winning a medal going into the last race but it just didn't go their way. It's great for them to be in that position."

Armit went into the final day in third but finished five points outside the medals after banking an eighth in the final race.

The 16-year-old had been in the top three for most of the week, and also recorded two race wins, but like many struggled with the shifty conditions off the coast of Sanya.

Rennie-Younger was fifth overall, three points off a bronze medal, after finishing 12th in her final race in the girl's Laser Radial. A disqualification in the third race of the regatta proved costly but she also recorded four top-five finishes.

Greta Stewart and Henry Haslett built into the regatta in the Nacra 15, with eight results inside the top six including a race win and two seconds in the last two races. The pair are a relatively new combination and new to the catamaran but Haslett will be too old for the next youth worlds in the US in July.

Rennie-Younger will also be too old but the remainder of the NZL Sailing Foundation youth team will be aiming to qualify for the next youth sailing world championships. The first qualification regatta will be the Laser national championships in Christchurch in January.

Seb Lardies and Scott McKenzie were eighth in the boy's 29er and Max van der Zalm 10th in the boy's RS:X in his first international competition.

The youth sailing world championships is the pinnacle event for youth sailors and there were 374 sailors from 60 nations competing in Sanya.

The regatta delivered the tensest final day in the history of the youth worlds with eight gold medals decided on the final run to the finish line. Three classes were decided on countback when the top two finished level on points and another was separated by only one point.

New Zealand were ninth in the Nations Trophy, which is awarded to the best overall country. Italy defended the title they won in Auckland last year, and they have now won it three times in the last five years.

Results and standings after the final day of the youth sailing world championships in Sanya, China, yesterday:

Boy's Laser Radial (51 boats)

1st: Maor Ben Hrosh (ISR) (27) 2 3 21 15 2 5 2 4 - 54 points

2nd: Daniil Krutskikh (RUS) 3 12 6 4 4 11 1 16 (19) - 57 points

3rd: Guido Gallinaro (ITA) 2 7 21 1 12 8 (52 DSQ) 7 2 - 60 pts

5th: Josh Armit (NZL) 1 14 1 14 (20) 4 13 10 8 - 65 pts

Girl's Laser Radial (40 boats)

1st: Charlotte Rose (USA) 1 1 17 1 4 1 (25) 1 17 - 43 pts

2nd: Dolores Moreira Fraschini (URU) 3 2 9 2 1 4 7 15 (23) - 43 pts

3rd: Daisy Collingridge (GBR) 7 18 (27) 12 7 8 4 2 11 - 69 pts

5th: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) 11 4 (41 DSQ) 5 14 19 3 4 12 - 72 pts

Nacra 15 (18 boats)

1st: Max Wallenberg Amanda / Bjork-Anastassov (SUI) 3 3 5 5 1 8 3 5 7 (11) 6 6 5 - 57 pts

2nd: Shannon Dalton / Jayden Dalton (AUS) 2 (13) 2 4 3 5 9 11 4 2 2 5 8 - 57 pts

3rd: Lucas Claeyssens / Anne Vandenberghe (BEL) 1 2 1 7 5 3 12 2 (15) 7 15 1 6 - 62 pts

6th: Greta Stewart / Henry Haslett (NZL) (14) 6 8 11 6 6 5 1 11 10 5 2 2 - 73 pts

Boy's 420 (26 boats)

1st: Otto Henry / Rome Featherstone (AUS) 4 2 2 1 (15) 13 1 11 3 - 37 pts

2nd: Thomas Rice / Trevor Bornarth (USA) 3 (9) 1 5 9 4 2 10 (11) - 43 pts

3rd: Ido Bilik / Noam Homri (ISR) 2 1 9 (15) 1 3 6 (18) 9 - 46 pts

19th: James Barnett / Sam Street (NZL) 21 (24) 17 7 12 17 12 12 16 - 114 pts

Girl's 420 (25 boats)

1st: Carmen Cowles / Emma Cowles (USA) (26 DSQ) 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 1 - 13 pts

2nd: Violette Dorange / Camille Orion (FRA) 8 (26 DSQ) 3 3 5 1 3 1 15 - 39 pts

3rd: Arianna Passamonti / Giulia Fava (ITA) (10) 10 5 5 1 3 4 6 6 - 40 pts

21st: Xanthe Copeland / Annabel Cave (NZL) 19 11 26 DNF 8 13 22 (26 UFD) 14 16 - 129 pts

Boy's 29er (30 boats)

1st: Theo Revil / Gautier Guevel (FRA) 4 2 8 7 1 9 (15) 14 3 2 2 10 7 - 69 pts

2nd: Mathias Berthet / Alexander Franks-Penty (NOR) 1 1 3 8 (31 DSQ) 20 10 6 4 4 5 1 14 - 77 pts

3rd: Santiago Duncan Elias Dalli (ARG) 5 8 4 17 4 7 4 11 (21) 3 8 8 1 - 80 pts

8th: Seb Lardies / Scott Mckenzie (NZL) 12 21 13 2 3 17 1 (31 DSQ) 1 10 14 18 20 - 132 pts

Girl's 29er (20 boats)

1st: Margherita Porro / Sofia Leoni (ITA) 1 1 1 8 1 8 3 5 2 7 3 (10) 5 - 45 pts

2nd: Zoya Novikova Diana Sabirova (RUS) 2 2 12 1 (17) 2 10 11 13 10 5 5 2 - 75 pts

3rd: Jasmin May / Galbraith Chloe Fisher (AUS) 9 11 10 (21 UFD) 5 17 2 6 4 2 1 3 6 - 76 pts

15th: Crystal Sun / Olivia Hobbs (NZL) 14 9 14 10 17 16 6 14 15 (20) 8 11 8 - 141 pts

Boy's RS:X (26 entries)

1st: Yoav Cohen (ISR) 1 1 3 5 1 2 1 (6) 1 1 1 4 5 - 26 pts

2nd: Hao Chen (CHN) 2 6 1 1 2 1 2 (8) 2 3 3 1 3 - 27 pts

3rd: Sil Hoekstra (NED) 6 5 4 2 4 4 4 2 4 2 6 (13) 2 - 45 pts

10th: Max van der Zalm (NZL) 9 16 13 11 8 7 6 10 8 11 (18) 6 17 - 122 pts

Girl's RS:X (19 entries)

1st: Emma Wilson (GBR) 2 1 3 2 3 (4) 2 2 1 1 3 3 1 - 24 pts

2nd: Giorgia Speciale (ITA) 3 2 (4) 1 1 1 3 3 2 3 2 1 2 - 24 pts

3rd: Ting Yu (CHN) 1 3 1 (5) 2 5 4 1 4 2 1 2 3 - 29 pts

15th: Veerle Ten Have (NZL) 14 16 (20 UFD) 17 16 12 10 14 16 10 13 17 9 - 164 pts

Nations Trophy

1st: Italy - 53 pts

2nd: Israel - 69 pts

3rd: USA - 71 pts

9th: New Zealand - 132 pts

The full results can he found here.

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Yachting New Zealand