Young sailors show promise in Portugal

By JULIE ASH

Yachting New Zealand's national programme co-ordinator Julie Worth believes the performance of the national team at the world youth championships augurs well for the future.

Eight New Zealand sailors competed in the International Sailing Federation under-19 regatta in Portugal and all finished in the top 10 in their classes.

Anna Eason, of Bucklands Beach, was New Zealand's top performer, finishing fourth out of 11 sailors in the women's mistral class.

Fellow Aucklanders David Robertson, Jo Aleh, Luke Judge, Scott Kennedy and Alistair Thompson all finished in the top six, and Olivia Powrie and Sarah Bilkey finished ninth.

Although none of the New Zealand sailors was able to break into the top three or emulate the gold medal-winning performance of Tom Ashley, who won the mistral class last year, Worth said the results were very encouraging.

"I think they did really well," she said. "They were all in the top 10, which was pretty good considering they are a young team.

"Only Anna Eason has competed in the event before. The rest are all aged between 16 to 18 and are eligible to compete again, so it looks pretty promising."

Worth said the conditions in Mandeira threw plenty of challenges at the young New Zealand sailors.

"It was a tough regatta in terms of the conditions," she said.

"It was sailed very close to the shore and one of the marks was under a 200m cliff, which the wind bounced off, making it a bit of a lottery.

"But they all had their moments of glory and their not-so good moments."

In the past New Zealand has produced many world youth champions, including Chris Dickson, Russell Coutts, Dean Barker and, in recent years, Dan Slater, Sarah Macky and Tom Ashley.

Worth said she saw no reason for that not to continue. "Clubs have started to put together programmes for young sailors which, along with Yachting New Zealand's youth programmes, will mean we will end up with a lot more depth across the classes so we should start to see the results of that soon."

The New Zealand team will have a month off before regrouping to start building up for regattas in Australia next year.
Results from world youth championships -

Mistral Women: 4th - Anna Eason (Bucklands Beach Yacht Club), Mistral Men: 6th - David Robertson (Kohimarama Yacht Club).

Laser Radial: 6th - Jo Aleh (Kohimarama Yacht Club).

Laser: 6th - Luke Judge (Torbay Sailing Club).

420 Men: 5th - Scott Kennedy (Kohimarama Yacht Club) / Alastair Thompson (Torbay Sailing Club).

420 Women: 9th Olivia Powrie / Sarah Bilkey (both from Kohimarama Yacht Club).