Singapore double tops - AGAIN!

by Singapore Sailing Federation on 11 Jul 2006 SingaporeSailing celebrates double victories for the second time in one week as Singapore’s young sailors seized yet another World Championship.

Singapore is represented in three international events this week and has put on terrific performances indicating that Singapore is one of the top nations in youth sailing right now. On Friday, Colin Cheng, 16, and Victoria Chan, 15, emerged as the new Laser 4.7 World Champions.

Yesterday, Nicholas Paul De Cruz, 16, and Elizabeth Yin Yueling, 14, won both the Men and Women’s divisions in the 2006 Arch Byte CII World Championships held in Bermuda, making this the second time Singapore has capture the World Byte crown. Calvin Lim won the Byte World Championship in 2004.

Nicholas fought a tight battle to secure the World Champion title against the more experienced 46-year-old Sunfish World Champion and one of Bermuda’s leading helmsmen Malcolm Smith who was merely few points behind him.

Malcolm needed a top three finish in the last race to win. However his attempt was foiled as Nicholas managed to keep his opponent at bay during the final race which almost became a match race between the two title contenders.

Both finished in mid-fleet with Malcolm scoring a 12th and Nicholas a 19th position, one of their worst scores which they are allowed to discard. After three discards, Nicholas won with 61 points, Malcolm followed second with 68 points and 15-year-old Bermudian William Hutchings came in third with 75 points, one point ahead of Singapore’s Jonathan Russel Chew in fourth place.

Overjoyed with his win at his first international regatta, Nicholas said, 'I’ve learnt a lot about the importance of consistency in racing. Sailing a few good races is not enough to win the regatta, staying fit and eating proper are equally imperative to one’s performance, especially towards the end of the regatta where everyone is getting very tired.'

Nanyang Girls’ High School’s Elizabeth Yin performed consistently throughout the regatta, she won the Women’s title even before the regatta ended with two races to spare. It was a reversal of fortune for Elizabeth and Hana BLORE of Great Britain, defending Women Champion, who finished in 12th place overall. Elizabeth finished 12th at the 2005 World Byte Championships in Italy when Hana was crowned the Women’s Champion.

The winning team attributed their success to their coaches, Koh Seng Leong and Mabel Ong, who have been coaching the team over the last five months. Seng Leong and Mabel are two of the pioneer highly trained National sailors-turned-coaches who are now passing on their expertise to the younger sailors. 'The sailors improved tremendously throughout the regatta in understanding what is required to be a champion. Gradually, they learned the importance of a proper diet and gained better understanding of the professionalism required for them in a world championship and once they understood what it took to win, they went from strength to strength.'

'Our sailors’ recent performances in the international arena have been very encouraging. Five World Championships titles (boys & girls) in the span of one year, winning the Youth Worlds in the 420 boys division, Laser 4.7 Worlds and now the Byte Worlds (men & women divisions) and we are now anticipating another win in the North American Optimist Championships where Sean LEE is leading the 189-strong competition. This shows that young home-grown Singapore sailors are amongst the world’s best.

Our plan now is to carry forward to the Olympic level where I believe we will be equally successful in a few years’ time,' commented Andrew SANDERS, Executive Director of Singapore Sailing Federation.

Fellow Singaporeans Jonathan Russel Chew finished in a credible fourth position, Michael Shen finished in eighth position and Wilbur Chan finished in 31st place. The regatta started out with light wind conditions on the first day and subsequently increased to gusting conditions of 12 to 18 knots. There were 33 sailors from seven countries competing in the Championships.