Kiwi crew take control at youth sailing world championships

Seb Menzies and Blake McGlashan extended their lead at the top of the boy's 420 standings at the Hempel youth sailing world championships in Poland with only three races remaining.

The young New Zealanders lead by 13 points over a gaggle of other crews after banking a first and seventh in today's two races. They took advantage in the 15-knot winds to assert their position at the head of the fleet.

A number of the other New Zealand sailors enjoyed the stronger winds on day three of the youth worlds, with Eli Liefting and Jack Frewin now eighth in the boy's 29er, Helena Sanderson and Jack Honey ninth in the Nacra 15 and Samantha Stock posting two top-10 results to move up to 11th in the girl's Laser Radial.

It would take something special for any of them to make it onto the podium but that's very much where Menzies and McGlashan have their sights.

"We are in a good place with three races to go," Menzies said. "Everyone wants to be us. The plan for tomorrow is to sail two keepers and see how the points lie."

Menzies and McGlashan went into these youth worlds in determined fashion after they were overtaken on the final day of last week's 420 world championships in Portugal and had to settle for second. They have sailed consistently well over the first three days, with two race wins, and they are the only boy's 420 combination to have finished in the top 10 in all of their races.

They opened with a race win today as some of their nearest rivals struggled and the number of teams fighting for the minor places - one point separates second to fifth - could work to their advantage.

"Today was a pretty good day," McGlashan said. "It was quite shifty, which is one of our strengths. Our starting has been going really well. We have been keeping calm under pressure and working on getting the basics right."

There has been steady improvement from a number of others in the NZL Sailing Foundation Youth Team, not least of all the boy's 29er combination.

Liefting and Frewin have achieved six top-10 results in their last seven races and were seventh, fifth and eighth in today's three races. The pair have admitted, like others in the New Zealand team, that the event has been a real eye opener.

"This is a very different team to last year's one [that won a record-equalling four medals] in that, for the majority it's not only their first youth worlds but in many cases also their first international event," Yachting New Zealand head youth coach Matt Thomas said. "The team have been very positive in their learning approach.

"They have had some good moments and some tough moments and they have managed to keep that in perspective because they are here to learn as much as they are to perform. They've had a fantastic attitude through those highs and lows and are determined to become better sailors."

Lighter winds of 8-10 knots are forecast for the penultimate day, which is different again to what has been on offer so far this week.

"It's been an amazing championships so far because there have been a variety of conditions which has made it fair," Thomas said. "It has demonstrated the skill-set you need to achieve."

Results and standings after day 3 of the youth sailing world championships in Gdynia, Poland, overnight (NZ time):

Boy's 420 (30 boats)

1st: Seb Menzies / Blake McGlashan (NZL) 1 (9) 2 4 1 7 - 15 points
2nd: Tal Sade / Noam Homri (ISR) 11 (13) 5 7 4 1 - 28 pts
3rd: Haydn Sewell / William Heathcote (GBR) 7 6 6 1 8 (13) - 28 pts

Girl's 420 (24 boats)

1st: Madeline Hawkins / Yumi Yoshiyasu (USA) 1 (7) 1 1 3 5 - 11 pts
2nd: Theresa Steinlein / Lina Plettner (GER) 4 (10) 3 10 10 2 - 29 pts
3rd: Natascha Rast / Samira Rast (SUI) (25 UFD) 12 9 6 4 1 - 32 pts

23rd: Sydney Cunliffe / Rebecca Hume (NZL) 19 20 (21) 15 21 20 - 95 pts

Boy's 29er (28 boats)

1st: Mathias Berthel / Alexander Franks-Penty (NOR) (4) 4 2 3 1 3 1 3 4 - 21 pts
2nd: Archie Cropley / Max Paul (AUS) 5 8 (13) 4 8 7 4 1 3 - 40 pts
3rd: Ewan Wilson / Finley Armstrong (GBR) 6 (18) 8 6 2 6 11 8 2 - 49 pts

8th: Eli Liefting / Jack Frewin (NZL) 16 15 10 7 7 (21) 7 5 8 - 75 pts

Girl's 29er (25 boats)

1st: Martina Carlsson / Amanda Ljunggren (SWE) (14) 9 6 1 1 1 9 2 - 29 pts
2nd: Berta Puig / Isabella Casaretto (USA) 3 5 1 7 (8) 7 2 5 - 30 pts
3rd: Antonia Schultheis / Victoria Schultheis (MLT) 5 2 3 3 10 9 4 (21) - 36 pts

21st: Sophia Fyfe / Holly Liefting (NZL) 21 (26 UFD) 25 20 17 13 19 - 130 pts

Nacra 15 (21 boats)

1st: Silas Muhle / Levke Moller (GER) 1 (15) 3 1 12 1 5 1 - 27 pts
2nd: Will Cooley / Rebecca Hancock (AUS) 2 3 2 5 5 4 7 (8) 4 - 32 pts
3rd: Titouan Petard / Marion Declef (FRA) 6 (9) 1 4 1 5 9 6 5 - 37 pts

9th: Helena Sanderson / Jack Honey (NZL) 4 6 10 6 11 8 6 9 (13) - 60 pts

Boy's Laser Radial (57 boats)

1st: Tytus Butowski (POL) 3 5 7 (10) 6 2 - 23 pts
2nd: Juan Cardozo (ARG) (14) 14 2 2 3 5 - 26 pts
3rd: Zac Littlewood (AUS) 26 6 1 (58 RET) 2 1 - 36 pts

14th: Luke Cashmore (NZL) 11 (25) 9 17 22 21 - 80 pts

Girl's Laser Radial (47 boats)

1st: Chiara Benini Floriani (ITA) 1 3 7 (22) 4 2 - 17 pts
2nd: Ana Moncada (ESP) (17) 4 4 5 3 1 - 17 pts
3rd: Matilda Nicholls (GBR) (8) 8 2 7 1 4 - 22 pts

11th: Samantha Stock (NZL) 13 25 3 (29) 8 6 - 55 pts

Full results

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