Littlewood Wins Laser Radial World Championship

Australian Youth Team sailor Zac Littlewood has won the Laser Radial World Championship in Germany where he was joined on the podium by fellow Western Australian Caelin Winchcombe.

Competing in the underpinning feeder class to the Olympic standard Laser, 17 year-old Littlewood sailed a near perfect campaign to comprehensively win gold in a fleet of over 90 boats.

The Applecross resident won half of the 10 completed races, with podium finishes achieved across a further two.

His highest carded finish was a pair of fourth place efforts in his total nett score of 18.0 points which was good enough for the world championship win ahead of Poland’s Aleksander Arian (33.0).

In a brilliant result for Western Australian sailing, Littlewood was joined on the podium by 18 year-old Winchcombe – who claimed third place. Winchcombe was just one nett point off the silver medal.

The Laser Radial Worlds were run in tandem with Kiel Week, which is an annual regatta boasting a wide range of fleet classifications.

2018 was no exception, with further WA representation across another five classes of racing.

With the 2018 Sailing World Championships in Denmark rapidly approaching, 49er sailor David Gilmour tuned-up in a strong international field, taking ninth place along with crewmate Joel Turner.

The pair managed one podium finish and were generally towards the front of the fleet, demonstrating that they will be in contention at the world titles in Aarhus.

Chris Charlwood and crewmate Josh Dawson finished 15^thin the men’s 470 which was won by Australians Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan.

That Charlwood was able to compete at all was a blessing after a recent surf-accident in WA left him with a nasty gash and significant bruising on his neck.

In the women’s 470, WA combination Nia Jerwood and Monique de Vries finished just shy of the medal round in 12^th place.

Elyse Ainsworth (19^th) and Zoe Thomson (20^th) had some strong moments in the women’s laser fleet, but couldn’t string enough consistency together against more seasoned opponents to threaten the top 10 medal round.

In the Nacra 17, the new pairing of Conor Nicholas and Hayley Clark showed promising early signs as they recorded a 17^thplaced finish. Their campaign included three top 10 efforts.