Medals for Australians at Sailing Youth Worlds

Written by Lara Watts

Italy won the Volvo Trophy with Great Britain second and Australia third.

Belinda Kerl and Chelsea Hall were overjoyed with their result in the Girls 420 competition.

"We are ecstatic as we really did not expect to go so well," said Kerl. "It has been a great opportunity to see how other teams from around the world go."

Belinda Kerl and Chelsea Hall are part of the Western Australian High Performance Sailing Program and have produced some outstanding performances in 2005/06. Winning the 420 National Championships in the Open Women Division qualified them to complete in the 2006 Ladies World Championships to be held at Real Club Nautico De Gran Canaria Spain in July and the 2007 World Championships in New Zealand.

It looked like it was going to be double gold for Australian in the 420 fleets as team-mates Sam Kivell and Max Taylor came ashore thinking they had also won gold from the Argentinean pairing. But after a protest between the Croatian and Argentinean teams, the Croats were disqualified and the title went to Argentinia on count back. Australia won silver and the bronze medal was taken by the Brazilians.

Sam and Max compete together as part of the Victorian International 420 Association and have also achieved some outstanding results in 2005/06. The year saw victories at the International 420 Victorian State Championships and Youth Nationals and National Championships.

Great results were also achieved in the Hobie 16 division with Jason Waterhouse and Jeremy Roberts coming in fourth place and Gabrielle King came fifth in the girls Laser Radial.

Historically for Australian sailors, success at an international level at Youth Championships has carried through into success at the senior level.

Yachting Australia's CEO, Phil Jones commented, "This is another great performance from our young sailors. It not only reflects the great commitment of the sailors and coaches, but is also a testament to the depth of youth sailing in Australia."

The final results for all classes are listed below:

Girls 420
1. Belinda Kerl & Chelsea Hall (AUS)
2. Aqueda Suria & Marta Martinez-Pons (ESP)
3. Sarah Tan & Tze Ting (SIN)

Boys 420
1. Sebastian Peri Brusa & Santiago Masseroni (ARG)
2. Max Taylor & Sam Kivell (AUS)
3. Marcos Adler & Bruno Leal Faria (BRA)

Girls Laser Radial
1. Tina Mihelic (CRO)
2. Maiken Foght Schutt (DEN)
3. Marit Bouwmeester (NED)
5. Gabrielle King (AUS)

Board Girls
1. Laura Linares (ITA)
2. Maayan Davidovich (ISR)
3. Malgorzata Bialecka (POL)
10. Alisha Kawalla (AUS)

Board Boys
1. Lukasz Grodzicki (POL)
2. Fabian Heidegger (ITA)
3. Pierre Le Coq (FRA)
19. James Levy (AUS)

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