Laser Radial Sailors on the Medal Hunt at Youth Worlds

Laser Radial Sailors on the Medal Hunt at Youth Worlds

Two New Zealand sailors will be chasing medals on the final day of the youth sailing world championships in Sanya, China, tonight.

Josh Armit is in third in the boy's Laser Radial, seven points off a possible silver medal but with two other sailors breathing down his neck.

Annabelle Rennie-Younger propelled herself back into medal contention in the girl's Laser Radial after a third and fourth last night and is fifth, only four points behind Argentina's Luciana Cardozo in third.

Armit, who is the under-17 Laser Radial world champion, has had a tough couple of days and was in the protest room again last night. He protested against his Italian rival, who was ruled to have hit the top mark but didn't execute a penalty turn, helping Armit stay in third.

Like many, he's also struggled with the conditions off the Chinese coast.

"It's so shifty and unstable here in Sanya that I just need to go sail my own race tomorrow," he said. "So far in this regatta, it's been a real mental challenge having such tricky conditions."

Similar conditions of 7-11 knots are forecast again today with the possibility of some gusts of around 20 knots.

Rennie-Younger rebounded strongly yesterday from a difficult couple of days which included being disqualified from one race after losing a protest. She's now finished in the top five in four of her eight races and similar results tonight could see her in the medals.

"I had a good day on the water," she said. "I was happy with my starts, speed and decision making around the course.

"My approach to tomorrow’s final race is to sail my own race. My regatta has been up and down but I’m keen to finish it off on a high."

It's what Greta Stewart and Henry Haslett are aiming to do as well in the Nacra 15. The pair have made steady progress up the leaderboard all week and are now sixth but would need all the stars to align perfectly if they are to get among the medals.

They picked up a race win on day three and added a second and fifth yesterday to further illustrate their potential.

"Today we started putting all the pieces of the puzzle together better, so we would like to continue with this on the final day," Haslett said. "Today was solid. We got off the line well and from there we had options."

The NZL Sailing Foundation youth team have two other classes inside the top 10 with Seb Lardies and Scott McKenzie eighth in the boy's 29er and Max van der Zalm 10th in the boy's RS:X.

The youth sailing world championships is the pinnacle event for youth sailors and there are 374 sailors from 60 nations competing in Sanya. There's not much of a turnaround before the next instalment with the next youth worlds in Corpus Christi in the US in July 2018.

Results and standings after the fourth day of the youth sailing world championships in Sanya, China, yesterday:

Boy's Laser Radial (51 boats)

1st: Daniil Krutskikh (RUS) 3 12 6 4 4 11 1 (16) - 41 points
2nd: Maor Ben Hrosh (ISR) (27) 2 3 21 15 2 5 2 - 50 pts
3rd: Josh Armit (NZL) 1 14 1 14 (20) 4 13 10 - 57 pts

Girl's Laser Radial (40 boats)

1st: Charlotte Rose (USA) 1 1 17 1 4 1 (25) 1 - 26 pts
2nd: Dolores Moreira Fraschini (URU) 3 2 9 2 1 4 7 (15) - 28 pts
3rd: Luciana Cardozo (ARG) 8 7 6 4 17 7 (22) 7 - 56 pts

5th: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (NZL) 11 4 (41 DSQ) 5 14 19 3 4 - 60 pts

Nacra 15 (18 boats)

1st: Shannon Dalton / Jayden Dalton (AUS) 2 (13) 2 4 3 5 9 11 4 2 2 5 - 49 pts
2nd: Max Wallenberg Amanda / Bjork-Anastassov (SUI) 3 3 5 5 1 8 3 5 7 (11) 6 6 - 52 pts
3rd: Lucas Claeyssens / Anne Vandenberghe (BEL) 1 2 1 7 5 3 12 2 (15) 7 15 1 - 56 pts

6th: Greta Stewart / Henry Haslett (NZL) (14) 6 8 11 6 6 5 1 11 10 5 2 - 71 pts

Boy's 420 (26 boats)

1st: Ido Bilik / Noam Homri (ISR) 2 1 9 (15) 1 3 - 16 pts
2nd: Otto Henry / Rome Featherstone (AUS) 4 2 2 1 (15) 13 - 22 pts
3rd: Thomas Rice / Trevor Bornarth (USA) 3 (9) 1 5 9 4 - 22 pts

19th: James Barnett / Sam Street (NZL) 21 (24) 17 7 12 17 - 74 pts

Girl's 420 (25 boats)

1st: Carmen Cowles / Emma Cowles (USA) (26 DSQ) 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 - 12 pts
2nd: Violette Dorange / Camille Orion (FRA) 8 (26 DSQ) 3 3 5 1 3 1 - 24 pts
3rd: Arianna Passamonti / Giulia Fava (ITA) (10) 10 5 5 1 3 4 6 - 34 pts

21st: Xanthe Copeland / Annabel Cave (NZL) 19 11 26 DNF 8 13 22 (26 UFD) 14 - 113 pts

Boy's 29er (30 boats)

1st: Theo Revil / Gautier Guevel (FRA) 4 2 8 7 1 9 (15) 14 3 2 2 10 - 62 pts
2nd: Mathias Berthet / Alexander Franks-Penty (NOR) 1 1 3 8 (31 DSQ) 20 10 6 4 4 5 1 - 63 pts
3rd: Rok Verderber / Klemen Semelbauer (SLO) 15 4 17 1 5 1 7 1 7 5 6 (24) - 70 pts

8th: Seb Lardies / Scott Mckenzie (NZL) 12 21 13 2 3 17 1 (31 DSQ) 1 10 14 18 - 112 pts

Girl's 29er (20 boats)

1st: Margherita Porro / Sofia Leoni (ITA) 1 1 1 8 1 8 3 5 2 7 3 (10) - 40 pts
2nd: Maiwenn Jacquin / Enora Percheron (FRA) 4 10 2 7 2 10 (11) 9 8 4 9 1 - 66
3rd: Jasmin May / Galbraith Chloe Fisher (AUS) 9 11 10 (21 UFD) 5 17 2 6 4 2 1 3 - 70 pts

15th: Crystal Sun / Olivia Hobbs (NZL) 14 9 14 10 17 16 6 14 15 (20) 8 11 - 133 pts

Boy's RS:X (26 entries)

1st: Yoav Cohen (ISR) 1 1 3 5 1 2 1 (6) 1 1 1 4 - 21 pts
2nd: Hao Chen (CHN) 2 6 1 1 2 1 2 (8) 2 3 3 1 - 24 pts
3rd: Sil Hoekstra (NED) 6 5 4 2 4 4 4 2 4 2 6 (13) - 43 pts

10th: Max van der Zalm (NZL) 9 16 13 11 8 7 6 10 8 11 (18) 6 - 105 pts

Girl's RS:X (19 entries)

1st: Giorgia Speciale (ITA) 3 2 (4) 1 1 1 3 3 2 3 2 1 - 22 pts
2nd: Emma Wilson (GBR) 2 1 3 2 3 (4) 2 2 1 1 3 3 - 23 pts
3rd: Ting Yu (CHN) 1 3 1 (5) 2 5 4 1 4 2 1 2 - 26 pts

15th: Veerle Ten Have (NZL) 14 16 (20 UFD) 17 16 12 10 14 16 10 13 17 - 155 pts

• The full results can he found here.

• Pic: Josh Armit is in third in the boy's Laser Radial going into the final day's racing at the youth worlds. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.

• The NZL Sailing Foundation youth team are in China with the help of the NZL Sailing Foundation, Oceanbridge, Zhik and High Performance Sport New Zealand.

ENDS

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