En route ot the Youth Olympic Games

Kieran Martin qualifies the GBR's first nation spot

RYA Team GBR has secured one of two GBR sailing and windsurfing places up for grabs at the first ever Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore this summer (August 14-26, 2010).

The inaugural event will encompass all 26 sports on the programme for the 2012 Summer Games and is set to run consecutively for the next four years. Over 3500 young athletes aged between 15 and 16 are expected to compete at the event each vying for one of the coveted brand new Youth Olympic titles on offer.

The sport of sailing and windsurfing has been granted two places at the event per country with the British Olympic Association (BOA) delegating the RYA responsibility for qualifying GBR’s two places and subsequently selecting one boy and one girl to compete at the games in the discipline.

The opening windsurfing qualifier event, the Techno European Championships, took place in Cadiz last week (23 December-3 January) and saw RYA Techno 7.8 National Junior Squad Sailor Kieran Martin finish Great Britain in second place, successfully qualifying GBR their first place at the Games.

With places awarded to the top four finishing nations at the event, Great Britain join France, Israel and Russia in qualifying their first male place for the Games.

RYA Youth Racing Manger Duncan Truswell comments: "We’re really pleased to have secured our first place at the games especially as we qualified ahead of a number of nations who traditionally have a very strong cohort of young windsurfers.

"The Youth Olympic Games is a completely new event so we’re not quite sure exactly what to expect from it but what we do know it is certainly going to be a high profile event with the world best young athletes competing. It’ll be a great learning experience for the two young sailors and the support staff we send out there with them, which is invaluable to the team as a whole," he concluded.

The next qualifier event for the games is set to be the Techno French National Championship which takes place in April where the RYA’s goal is to secure the remaining GBR girls place at the games.

Adding to Martins success at the Techno Europeans, RYA National Junior Squad twin sisters Imogen and Saskia Sills also picked up silverware at the event with Saskia securing silver and Imogen bronze in the 6.8m U15 fleet.

Adding to the Techno squads New Year success Cadet Squad sailors Chris Brewer and Ole Alcock also picked up silverware this week for the RYA Junior Squad at the Cadet Worlds in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The pair picked up a silver medal after a nail-biting last day climax to the regatta where they knocked Australian sailors Alec and Samantha Bailey off the silver spot in their last two races.

The GBR Cadet Team, who were supported financially by the RYA and the UKNCCA to attend the regatta also picked up the coveted team prize at the regatta for the best team performance under the watchful eye of RYA Cadet National Squad Coach Adam Bowers.