Giles Scott (GBR) takes Finn Junior World title

by RYA on 30 Jan 2008
In a double fillip for Skandia Team GBR, following on from Ben Ainslie's Gold Cup win, hot prospect Giles Scott was crowned 2008 Finn Junior World Champion having led the contest since day one.

With Scott finishing 14th overall, an astonishing 133 points better off than silver medallist Piotr Kula (POL), Ainslie had some encouraging words for the 20-year-old pretender to his throne.

'Giles has sailed really well here and he is a star of the future for sure,' he said. 'He thought he could have done better which is a good sign of how good he's going to be. The results of the British Finn team in general here shows this is a good squad to be in.'

Scott had been leading the contest since the first day and had the Junior title well secured. The fight was on for the second and third places not yet decided before the last race sailed today for the sailors ranked 11th and up. Piotr Kula (POL) and Federico Melo (POR) are conserving their earlier position to take Silver and Bronze.

Henry Bagnall (GBR) was disappointed and surprised after being disqualified on the start. “I started on the third row!”, this penality costing him the bronze medal in the Junior Championship.

Federico Melo's third place in the Juniors is shadowed by missing out on Olympic selection by only 22 points. The sixth country place held yesterday by Ali Kemal Fekci was coveted by Ukraine and Portugal tailing the Turk closely.

However Fekci managed to keep his direct opponents at bay qualiying his country and himself for the Olympics. Junior European champion in the Finn in 1993, Ali Kemal Fekci had stopped racing in the Finn in 1996 to try his luck in the Laser. “I was coaching the Chinese Laser team in Qingdao and realised that it could be my type of conditions. I asked my Federation and started again in the Finn two month ago.”

2008 Finn Gold Cup, Black Rock Yacht Club, British results:

1st Ben Ainslie

7th Ed Wright

14th Giles Scott - Junior World Champion

18th Ed Grieg

27th Andrew Mills

31st Mark Andrews

45th Henry Bagnell

79th Edward Thorburn