Drama on final day at Laser Radial Youth Worlds

by Event media/Sail-World on 12 Aug 2007 In a final day of drama at the Laser Radial Youth Worlds, Spain's Susana Romero Steensma was black flagged in the final race and had to watch Tuula Tenkanen of Finland sail the race of her life to take the Title by 0.4 of a point. In the men's event Thorbjoern Schierup from Denmark, recovered from the worst race of his series to hold off Ioannis Mitakis of Greece and take the Title.

In contrasting conditions to the previous day the final two races in the Laser Radial Youth World Championship were completed in a 6 to 9 knot northerly wind under blue skies. The south going current with the wind in the first race helped keep the fleets behind the line but made the 0.5 mile windward legs slow.

The wind started backing for the start of the second race with a small increase in pressure. The course was moved several times as the wind tracked to the north west where it finally settled although with more shifts than the first race. By the time the course was re-set the tide had turned 180 degrees and caused several recalls in each fleet, fast windward legs but very slow downwind legs.

Israel's Suffa Ben Horin held off a strong challenge from Anne Haeger USA to win her first race of the Youth Female championship. Behind them series leader, Susana Romero Steensma ESP was having her own private battle with overall third, Sarah Gunni DEN. Steensma passed Gunni on the final downwind leg to finish seventh and still in control of the overall title as second overall, Tuula Tenkanen FIN, was having a bad day in back in the twenties.

Once again there was drama in the last race of the day. Steensma threw caution to the wind in an effort to get a good start and was over the line along with seven others in a black flag start which meant she could not start in the restart of the race.

Tenkanen had to win to to take the title. She gave it her best shot finishing second to Tiffany Brian IRL and was resigned to the runner-up position. On coming ashore she found out that Brian was being protested by the jury for a mark touching incident and subsequently disqualified. That left Tenkanen the race winner and World Champion by 0.4 of a point!

In the Youth Male gold fleet, Thorbjoern Schierup from Denmark, the overall leader since the first day, had to score 11th place or better in one of the races to be certain of winning the overall title. He struggled in the lighter winds and scored his worst result of the series, a 13th.

However he was only four places behind his nearest rival, Ioannis Mitakis GRE and still needed an 11th or finish worse but ahead of Mitakis to win. Mitakis could still win with a 2nd place in the final race if Schierup made a mistake. As it turned out all top four sailors scored worse than 22nd which gave Schierup the title whilst USA's Andy Philip led the final race home ahead Filip Matika from Croatia.

Laser Radial Youth Worlds final overall leaders

Women

1 FIN 185346 Tenkanen , Tuula, 11-Aug-1990 39,6
2 ESP 181402 Romero Steensma , Susana, 05-May-1990 40,0
3 DEN 182273 Gunni , Sarah, 30-May-1990 52,0
4 USA 187722 Haeger , Anne, 05-Feb-1990 56,0
5 FRA 184342 de Kerangat , Mathilde, 14-Oct-1991 63,0
6 USA 182841 Dennis , Claire, 10-Jul-1991 74,0
7 NZL 188801 Hume-merry , Cushla, 13-Jun-1990 78,0
8 GBR 190565 Martin , Chloe, 01-Jul-1990 82,0
9 AUT 176578 Haid , Veronika, 26-Jun-1989 83,0
10 IRL 186917 Murphy , Annalise, 01-Feb-1990 84,0
11 USA 183905 Billing , Emily, 02-Jul-1991 108,0
12 DEN 184992 Hall , Cathrine, 27-Apr-1990 112,0
13 POL 178293 Weinzieher , Anna, 14-Sep-1990 120,0
14 ISR 185736 Ben Horin, Suffa, 03-Feb-1991 123,0
15 NED 187606 Straus , Eva, 31-May-1989 124,0
16 FRA 187447 Isambert , Sabine, 27-May-1989 125,0
17 FIN 181478 Tenkanen , Heidi, 12-Apr-1992 144,0
18 GRE 181021 Batsi-georgakopoulou , Ermioni, 24-Jun-1989 150,0
19 SWE 185415 Kores , Cecilia, 24-May-1989 153,0
20 ITA 185388 Fabbri , Matilde, 05-Apr-1990 157,0
21 ITA 186121 Beatrice , de Regis, 13-Jun-1990 170,0
22 GBR 183557 Ireland , Joanna, 30-Jun-1990 188,0
23 POL 183430 Skrzypulec , Agnieszka, 03-Jun-1989 190,0
24 SWE 185486 Kores , Louise, 24-May-1989 191,0
25 IRL 189050 Brien , Tiffany, 10-Aug-1990 206,0
26 RUS 185115 Kirilyuk , Alisa, 09-Jul-1990 207,0
27 GBR 189200 Addy , Melissa, 03-May-1990 216,0
28 FRA 180976 Rannou , Klervi, 04-May-1989 219,0
29 FRA 190676 Bolou , Marie, 27-Nov-1992 221,0
30 NED 187600 Broekhuizen , Michelle, 14-Sep-1992 224,0
31 GBR 184854 Platts , Sophie, 03-Mar-1990 224,0
32 FRA 186936 Le Sausse , Fanny, 31-Oct-1989 229,0
33 BEL 186946 Belis , Sofie, 29-Jun-1990 234,0
34 BEL 180608 Stals , Adeline, 02-Jun-1991 235,0
35 GBR 189068 Dobson , Anna, 05-Dec-1989 235,0
36 CRO 187074 Ganic , Tajana, 11-Apr-1990 235,0
37 SUI 184728 Luther , Manon, 13-Sep-1989 241,0
38 GER 185202 Ennulat , Janine, 16-May-1990 246,0
39 GER 185569 Steiner , Paula, 27-Jul-1990 250,0
40 ITA 184967 Giuliari , Emma, 09-May-1990 251,0
41 USA 175011 Prioleau , Carolyn, 24-Mar-1990 255,0
42 GER 182183 Rattemeyer , Lisa, 14-Aug-1990 261,0
43 ESP 178020 Carles-tolra Sallent , Miriam, 01-Mar-1989 263,0
44 FIN 176600 Takala , Annina, 01-Apr-1992 277,0
45 GRE 165211 Psoma, Antonia, 26-Nov-1991 288,0
46 NED 185055 Asselt , Charlotte, 08-Nov-1992 294,0
47 HUN 186702 Hegedus , Fanni, 30-Nov-1989 295,0
48 BER 156628 Gardner , Eleanor, 20-Feb-1991 296,0
49 ITA 185910 Cosentino , Laura, 26-Jun-1990 297,0
50 IRL 190668 Ebrill , Sarah, 12-May-1989 307,0
51 NED 182101 Niezen , Caren, 18-Aug-1991 311,0
52 CZE 182267 Pospíšilová , Lucie, 04-Aug-1989 311,0
53 GER 167657 Thiesen , Catharina, 12-May-1989 334,0
54 GRE 188259 Drosinou , Konstantina, 29-Aug-1991 335,0
55 GER 188510 Bauermeister , Chris, 17-Jan-1990 337,0
56 EST 189676 Kolk , Liina, 27-Jul-1989 337,0
57 GER 183476 Weick , Anja, 04-Jun-1992 347,0
58 RUS 181488 Maksutova , Ksenia, 27-Oct-1989 355,0
59 ISR 173830 Shterenberg, Ofir, 18-Jul-1991 357,0
60 CRO 182690 Dujmovic , Marina, 23-Dec-1992 390,0
61 JPN 156056 Nishimura , Shion, 30-Oct-1989 416,0
62 SLO 175292 Krasevac , Marusa, 14-Oct-1990 422,0
63 JPN 148933 Tombe , Yumiko, 21-Jul-1990 435,0
64 GER 185208 Strauch , Ronja, 07-Oct-1990 444,0
65 ITA 182770 Facchini , Valeria, 01-May-1992 445,0
66 SUI 147112 Muehlemann , Barbara, 30-Oct-1990 461,0
67 JPN 187424 Ueda , Naomi, 04-Apr-1990 468,0
68 GER 188334 Stegemann , Laura, 28-Nov-1990 493,0

Men

1 DEN 187788 Schierup , Thorbjoern, 08-Jun-1990 22,0
2 GRE 185589 Mitakis , Ioannis, 08-Nov-1989 28,0
3 NED 181979 Pelt , Gijs, 15-Mar-1989 30,0
4 ESP 176474 Blanco , Joaquin, 25-Jun-1989 60,0
5 TUR 179890 Tuna , Barbaros, 15-May-1989 64,0
6 AUS 188795 Burman , James AUS, 11-Feb-1989 72,0
7 NZL 181961 Maloney , Andrew, 02-Jun-1990 74,0
8 SLO 184714 Domijan , Luka, 24-Jan-1989 75,0
9 FRA 183396 Antoine , Coadou, 04-May-1989 75,0
10 GBR 183239 Jessop , David, 24-Apr-1989 91,0
11 NZL 190332 Meech , Sam, 04-Apr-1991 106,0
12 NED 183449 Haakman , Jochem-bart, 21-Sep-1990 108,0
13 GBR 177577 Mills-barton , Alex, 12-Aug-1991 112,0
14 GBR 185602 Spencer , Rob, 04-Jun-1990 113,0
15 GRE 178481 Katsios , Alexios, 15-Feb-1991 114,0
16 FRA 186934 Arthaud , Aymeric, 15-Mar-1989 124,0
17 TUR 184780 Yalaz, Resat, 06-Feb-1989 128,0
18 GBR 187458 Willis , Thomas, 05-Aug-1991 132,0
19 BRA 62585 Hackerott , Joao, 12-Apr-1989 136,0
20 BRA 155733 Pereira , Guilherme, 05-Jul-1991 138,0
21 POL 180738 Zemke , Wojciech, 13-Oct-1989 141,0
22 GRE 184959 Chrisos , Nikolaos, 13-Sep-1991 142,0
23 GBR 189362 Evans , Martin, 03-Apr-1992 149,0
24 NED 178640 Moerman , Maarten Max, 28-Feb-1991 150,0
25 TUR 184779 Bastanoglu, Bora, 26-Jun-1991 153,0
26 RUS 171937 Serezhkin , Victor, 25-Aug-1990 154,0
27 GRE 188268 Petrakopoulos , Evangelos, 07-Sep-1990 155,0
28 ITA 181442 Nassini , Luca, 15-Feb-1989 162,0
29 NZL 185381 Mckee , Cameron, 07-Aug-1990 164,0
30 FRA 186634 Leseigneur , Malo, 18-Nov-1989 165,0
31 POR 183164 Morais , Joao Gil, 23-