First nod for ISAF Youth Worlds

Chloe Martin has been selected as Britain's first representative for the Youth Worlds

Up-and-coming Laser Radial sailor Chloe Martin has been officially unveiled as the first member of RYA Team GBR’s 2008 ISAF Youth World Championships squad.

Martin secured her selection for the girls’ Radial class at the prestigious event being staged in Aarhus, Denmark in July following her impressive performance at the recent Laser Radial Youth World Championships in New Zealand, where she finished the top British girl in eighth.

This will be the second consecutive year Martin has been selected for the ISAF Youth Worlds, the 17-year-old from Tonbridge in Kent taking ninth at last year’s Championships in Kingston, Canada having won the girls’ RYA Youth Nationals Radial title three months earlier.

Martin is the first of RYA Team GBR’s 10 sailors that will be selected for the seven-class ISAF Youth Worlds regatta. It is proposed the remaining nine sailors in six classes will be announced at tomorrow’s (Friday) 2008 RYA Youth Championships and Trials final day prize-giving.

Meanwhile as many as five of Britain’s most promising young sailors will be handed a major boost in their fledgling careers when the latest recruits to the Musto Academy are also announced at that prize-giving ceremony.

The Musto Academy Programme was launched in 2007 to recognise and support emerging talent in the RYA Youth and Junior programmes.

Under the banner of ‘Achievement through Adventure’, the initiative provides backing to between three and five sailors from both the Youth and Junior programmes each year through the provision of a range of technical and casual sailing clothing.

The scheme recognises those sailors who may not have actually already won medals but have shown the potential and desire to make the most of their talent while also acting as a positive role model for other young sailors in their age group or class.

And the RYA Youth National Championships and Trials provides the perfect showcase to give the 2008 Academy recruits the platform their selection deserves.

The selected Youth sailors for the 2007 Musto Academy include Eifion Mon and Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth, selected for the Skandia Team GBR Development Laser and 470 squads respectively last autumn and Peter Irwin and David Kohler defending their 420 Championships at this week’s RYA Youth Nationals.

Of last year’s Junior Academy sailors, James Grant is currently battling for a medal in the Laser Radial class at the Youth Nationals while Andy Brown is also in line for a creditable top 10 finish on his Youth Nationals debut. Fellow Academy sailor Katrina Brewer unfortunately had to withdraw from this year’s Championships through injury.