New record for Hong Kong in the Laser Radial Youth Worlds
by Natalie Ng 17 Sep 2017 05:27 PDT
13-18 August 2017
Laser Radial Youth Worlds at Medemblik day 4 © Thom Touw Photography
Hong Kong Sailor Nicholas Bezy represented Hong Kong at the Laser Radial Youth Worlds and
brought home a bronze medal – a new record for Hong Kong Sailors. The event was held in
Medemblik, The Netherlands in August 2017. Sailors from 44 different countries took part in this event.
Ben Koppelaar, the coach of Hong Kong Sports Institute was thrilled with the results and told the story, "In preparation for the Radial Youth Worlds we trained for a week in Medemblik to get used to the conditions. The Ijsselmeer is very choppy and shifty with an offshore breeze.
"Nicholas Bezy and Malik Hood had just sailed the U21 Worlds in Laser Standard in windy
conditions, so we wanted to use limited but effective hours on the water. After our evaluation from the previous event we focused mainly on strategy, downwind speed and starting in the build up to this competition.
"With 273 entries in the Boys fleet this was one of the biggest World Championships in years. The boys raced in four fleets over four days of qualifying series. The last two days the sailors were divided into Gold, Silver, Bronze and Emerald fleet.
"The first four days (qualifying) were very light, between 4 and 8 knots. After a great start on the first day (3,1) and some good races in the next few days, Nick qualified 17th into the gold fleet for the final two days.
"In the finals he really pulled it off with brilliant starts, great upwind strategy and boat speed. He stayed focused on the process (not on the results) and kept learning and improving during the whole event. Impressive!"
www.laserradialworlds.com/results/results-laser-radial-youth