First Gold to GBR's Tom Phipps and Richard Glover

by RYA/Myrrh Walker on 20 Jul 2006 On Wednesday’s penultimate day of racing at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, Tom Phipps and Richard Glover have clinched Great Britain’s first gold medal of the event in the Hobie 16 class.

With a day to spare, Falmouth’s Phipps and Weymouth-based Glover have won a gold medal in the 13-boat fleet after executing three convincing bullets on the sixth day of the event. The two boys have a near perfect scorecard counting six first place finishes and only one second place. With eight points overall, they have an unassailable 18-point lead over the Australians Jason Waterhouse and Jeremy Roberts, their closest rivals.

Phipps and Glover came off the water quietly grinning. Phipps explained, 'We definitely wanted to come here and win a medal. We hoped to do well but we didn’t expect to do this well. We’re really pleased to have won a gold.'

With a medal in the bag, one might think that the two sailors will be off to celebrate but Phipps and Glover remain focused on competing again tomorrow.

'We will be back on the water tomorrow to compete for the Volvo Trophy awarded to nation with the best overall results. We might have a little dance later but we will be out there racing tomorrow.' Phipps concluded.

At 18, Phipps is competing at his third and last Youth Worlds event before moving into senior level competition. Glover, on the other hand, could well be back to compete at the 2007 Youth Worlds to be held in Ontario, Canada.

Glover explained, 'I think we’re both pretty pleased with our result. We did have a home-grown advantage as we sail in these waters all the time and it is essentially our own backyard. Hopefully I will be back next year for the 2007 Youth Worlds, this time competing with my brother.'

British sailors managed to add some top results to the teams already impress overall score, ending themselves that much closer to the Volvo Trophy.

Laser Radial sailor Anna Dobson also had a fantastic day on the water. The Scot had her first ever first place finish and was met with a cheer as she crossed the finish line.

'I’ve never won a race before, I’ve had seconds and thirds, but I’ve never won. It’s great to win at an event where the level of competition is so high.'

Dobson, currently in eighth overall, followed her race win up with a fourth in the second race, another result that she is pleased about.

Welshman Sean Evans got off to a good start in the Laser, scoring a third in the opening race, followed up by an 11th and a discardable 28th.

The 420 fleets got two races on the books today, with GBR’s Richard Mason and Dan Schieber hunting down two top ten results. A seventh place finish in the first race was followed by a second place in their final race of the day keeping them in seventh overall.

Sophie Weguelin and Katrina Hughes also hold their overall position, unable to move out of 12th place. With an 11th and seventh from their races today, the duo will hope to post a good result tomorrow allowing them to drop their low score of 15th.

The RS:X windsurfers got only one race in on the sixth day of the event but remain on schedule. Young Richard Hamilton had a rough start to the morning posting a 13th after sailing over the anchor line of the start boat; however, Hamilton is able to discard the result. The 16-year-old is now five points behind third placed Pierre Le Coq of France, but will have a potential medal on his mind when he competes tomorrow.

'Hopefully I will have a good race tomorrow and possibly have a chance at of a medal.' Hamilton explained.

Liverpool’s Beth Williamson, in seventh overall, had a tenth place finish in the girls fleet getting squeezed out by two places just before the finish line. Williamson also continues to rack up valuable points for the Volvo Trophy.

Great Britain has won the Volvo Trophy twice before, and at the 2006 Youth Worlds they are once again in the running to bring the trophy home. The Italians are currently in first place and have seen strong performances from both their male and female windsurfers. The Brits are not far behind, separated by only six points from the Italians, with the Australian team also chasing down the trophy, only 15 points adrift from the British sailors.

In the battle for the Volvo Trophy, there’s everything left to play for on the final day of racing tomorrow (Thursday), with the Volvo RYA GBR Youth Worlds team still in the hunt for the honour of the being the overall best nation.