Victory for GBR at Team Racing Worlds

by RYA on 1 Oct 2007 The champagne corks were popping in Valencia on Saturday as Team GBR toasted double glory at the ISAF Team Racing World Championships.

After light winds scuppered the medal contests on the final day at the Real Club Nautico Gandia, Team GBR were celebrating after being crowned the event’s first ever Under 21 champions as well as taking silver in the Open event.

Having won through to Saturday’s quarter finals, GBR2 had secured a place in the semis before the wind dropped and the competition was halted while failure to also complete the five-team round robin to decide the U21 title sent the judges scurrying to their rules books.

And with the judges referring to rule D4.3, stating that results would go back to the last completed series of races, GBR2 claimed a deserved silver behind USA1 and a fifth overall for GBR3 saw them take the U21 crown.

Team manager Alan Guy said his troops were worthy medal winners.

He said: 'It is an absolutely fantastic achievement for all of them. The Under 21s surpassed everyone’s expectations I think but they were one step ahead every step of the way and all the hard work they put into their training since June has paid dividends. They really went from strength to strength.'

Great Britain had three teams taking part during the five days’ racing in Spain but with only one team from each nation able to progress through to the quarter final stages GBR2 took the honours over GBR1 thanks to their performance on day three.

This year marked the inaugural Under 21 championships, GBR3 claiming the Ciudad Gandia Trophy.

GBR2 – Andrew Bryson (Wirral), Georgina Corlett (Wirral), Matthew Findlay (Southampton), Nicola Russell (Oxfordshire), Susan Short (Sevenoaks), Thomas Hebbert (Sevenoaks).

GBR U21 – Elliott Parsons (Cirencester, Exeter Uni), Ian Robertson (Avon, Bristol Uni), James Goss (Basingstoke, Warwick Uni), Maria Stanley (Oxford, Bristol Uni), Oliver Mulcahy (West Sussex, Warwick Uni), Stephen Videlo (Suffolk, Exeter Uni).