Youth World Titles for WA Sailors

WAIS sailors competing in international youth events have won world titles in the Netherlands and Ireland over the weekend.

Annabelle Davies and Hayley Clark combined to win the women’s 29er World Championship in Medemblik, whilst in Ireland, Zoe Thompson claimed victory in the women’s laser radial.

Davies and Clark entered the final day of competition 32 points behind the leading Polish pair, but a black flag disqualification for overshooting the start line for the Poles, catapulted the Aussie pair back into contention, which they exploited to the full, winning the race to earn the women’s title, whilst finishing ninth overall in the mixed fleet.

Clark admitted that they hadn’t expected to win the Youth title based on their position leading into the final day, but were delighted to execute to the best of their ability despite the circumstances.

“It was really exciting today, but we didn’t think we could win. It was a small chance to be on our game.”

Davies added, “We just went out there and said we would do our best and see how many points we could climb. We got some nice starts and from there it made it so much easier to play a conservative game and to take some shifts. It was very choppy, but we found the chop a bit more manageable than yesterday. We could catch a few guys on the downwind.”

Less than an hour after Clark and Davies’ success, WA colleague Zoe Thomson secured her Youth title, beating Norwegian rival Caroline Trosmo by 14 points in the laser radial class.

With only one race win for the regatta, Thomson’s success was built on consistency, with regular top five results proving the key to her victory.

There was also success for WAIS sailor Elyse Ainsworth, who won the Laser Radial Youth Under-17 title, whilst also finishing ninth overall in the open field.