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Youth Worlds Day 4: Silver For 420 Boys As Medal Hunt Continues

Published Fri 20 Jul 2018

Medals were confirmed and improvements made by Australian Youth Team members in another hotly-contested series of races against the best young sailors in the world at the Youth World Championships in Texas.

Defending champions in the 420 boys, Otto Henry and Rome Featherstone, have secured a silver medal for Australia before tomorrow’s final race, while 29er boys crew, Henry Larkings and Miles Davey, and Laser Radial boys sailor Zac Littlewood still have opportunities to change the colour of their medals.

“It’s always disappointing coming in as the defending champion and not do the same again,” Team Leader Tristan Brown said of Henry and Featherstone.

“But Rome’s in his last year of school and has heaps of study on, and they’ve both grown physically from when they raced last year, so they should be quite happy with securing the silver. It’s a pretty good effort to win gold and silver in two years.”

Brown explained the situation for Larkings and Davey, who sit 5 points behind the second-placed New Zealand crew and a further 10 points behind the leaders from Norway.

Larkings and Davey are caught in a tactical stoush. PHOTO: James Tomlinson/World Sailing

“They’re still, in theory, within reach of first if the New Zealand guys attack the Norwegians, but we don’t know how that will play out,” Brown said.

“The Norwegians have an over-the-start-line, so they have to carry whatever they sail tomorrow, whereas the New Zealanders have a worst placing of 9th. So if the New Zealand guys try to sail Norway back through the fleet, then the worst the Kiwis will have to carry is their 9th. If that happens, the Kiwis would have to keep their eyes on Henry and Miles as well, because they could still win if they sailed a low score. It’s probably more unlikely than likely, but there’s a chance there.”

In the Radial, Littlewood is only two points behind the second-placed Argentinian sailor.

“It comes down to what tactics the top boats try and employ, as to whether or not that opens up opportunities to do better. In Zac’s case, he’s got to be top 5 and have a boat between him and the Argentinian,” Brown said.

Buchanan and Duggan showed their skills on Day 4. PHOTO: Jen Edney/World Sailing

Elsewhere, 29er girls crew Alice Buchanan and Dervla Duggan secured their best results of the campaign, with three top 5s, which put them inside the top 10. RSX windsurfer Alex Halank, competing at his third Youth Worlds, had his best outcomes of the regatta and moved up a couple of places.