Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson have defended their Yngling World Championship title in emphatic style, clinching victory in Miami with a day to spare.
These girls are becoming as firm favourites in the Yngling as fellow Skandia Team GBR member Ben Ainslie is in the Finn. Along with Ben, and Nic Asher and Elliot Willis in the 470, this is Britain’s third World Championship victory since the beginning of the year.
Australia have notched up two wins, Nathan Outteridge/ Ben Austin in the 49er and Tom Slingsby earlier this week in the Laser. USA claims the other win of 2008 so far, Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving in the Women’s 470.
As to the Yngling win in Miami, bowgirl Pippa Wilson described the moment as “amazing – it hasn’t quite sunk in yet!” She admitted that they were fully fired up to defend their world title after missing out on the medals at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta at the same venue two weeks ago.
“Going into the OCR we hadn’t really raced since China, as we’d been working on a lot of equipment stuff,” the 22-year Lymington sailor explained. “We didn’t finish quite where we wanted to be at that event, which meant we were even more ready for the Worlds.
“In the past we’ve been in the same position, but have made a few mistakes. This time, I think our experience helped pull us through. We just sailed really consistently throughout the week – we had some pretty tricky conditions and some big breezes and so our teamwork has really shone through.”
The Medal Race was a formality for the Brits, who came in 5th, but won the event with half the points of any other team.
The surprise package in the Yngling Worlds were the Australians Krystal Weir, Karyn Gojnich and Angela Farrell who took the silver medal by just a point, after a thrilling three-way fight for the minor medals. The German team of Ulrike Schuemann, Julia Beck and Ute Hoepner made a late charge down the final run to claim bronze, leaving the US team of Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe and Debbie Capozzi with the ‘leather medal’.
You can find full results here…
(Photo courtesy of Yngling.org and Photoboat.com)
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