Britain seals Under 21 World Team Racing bronze
4th February 2009Great Britain has picked up an Under 21s bronze medal at the 2009 ISAF Team Racing World Championships in Australia.
The team of Will Shepherd, Emma Lombard, Cameron Douglas, Sophie Shepherd, Owain Matthews and Jemima Riley – all from West Kirby Youth - progressed through to the semi-final stage of the Under 21s Championship in Perth on Wednesday but were unable to overcome NZL3 who won the best of three semi-final showdown 2-0.
Britain went into the event as defending Under 21 World champions, having claimed the first ever title contested in Spain in 2007.
But the Southern Hemisphere teams proved too strong this time out as Australia and New Zealand enjoyed a better return from the two opening round robin events before carrying that form into the semi-final and final stages, Australia sealing Under 21 Championship victory by seeing off New Zealand 3-0 in the best of five final.
The 2009 ISAF Team Racing World Championships, being contested in Pacer dinghies, started at the Royal Freshwater Bay YC and South of Perth YC in Western Australia on Monday and culminates with the final overall Open Championship decider on Sunday.
With Thursday a lay day, RYA teams GBR1 and GBR2 currently lie in sixth and seventh place overall respectively both having accumulated a 58 per cent race win percentage across the opening two round robin events.
GBR3, the Under 21 team, sit in 12th overall while reigning World Champions USA1 sit pretty at the top of the pile with a 96 per cent win ratio.
Meanwhile, the Peppercorn team from Papercourt SC are the newly-crowned RYA Ladies’ Team Racing National Champions.
No fewer than 12 teams braved the Baltic conditions at Spinnaker Club last weekend (31 Jan – 1 Feb) but it was the Peppercorn sextet of Anneka Smith, Sarah Smith, Sarah Hornby, Clare Michelmore and Lucy Preston that clinched victory by a whisker from Oxford.
With six teams making it through to the Gold League, Oxford and Peppercorn both finished with the same win/loss ratio but it was the team from Papercourt that claimed the Championship title as they won the head-to-head between themselves and Oxford. Royal Southern took third spot.