Argentina and Britain victorious

Annabel Vose and Megan Brickwood secure the women's title at the 420 World Championship in Buenos Aires

Young RYA Volvo National Youth Squad sailors, Annabel Vose (16) and Megan Brickwood (15) have kick started 2011 in golden style securing themselves the Ladies World Title in Buenos Aires, Argentina after the 420 World Championships came to a close last night.

In difficult choppy conditions the Hampshire-based pair thought their chances of a medal from the event were over on day one, breaking their mast just before the finish line in race two. But in a stroke of luck they managed to hold on to their sixth place position in the race crossing the line through pure momentum just in front of the rest of the fleet to hold on to second place in the overnight standings.

From then on the young duo, who have only been sailing together for a year and half, made no mistake in keeping a medal within their sights throughout the six day event, posting a consistent string of results and occupying the silver medalling winning position going into the final day.

With French paring Lemaitre and Retornaz nine points clear, having lead the pack towards the end of the week, chances of a last minute shake up in results looked unlikely. However with a change of wind direction an opportunity opened up for Vose and Brickwood to take the win in the last race, the French struggling at the back end of the fleet.

Vose explained: “The lighter and north westerly winds were totally different conditions to what we had experienced during the other races but because we’d arrived at the venue quite early we had seen it before and that really favoured us.”

The pair posted a seventh in the race, capitalizing on their venue training, six points ahead of the flailing French who crossed the line in 28th.

“When we crossed the line in the last race we knew we’d done enough to get the gold but we thought there was another race. It wasn’t until our coaches told us that was it for the day that we could believe we really had won!”

In securing the Junior and Senior World title, Vose and Brickwood collected RYA Team GBR’s best result at the Championship for five years, Hannah Mills and Peggy Webster having last picked up a British World title in Grand Canaria, 2006.

Brickwood said of their win: “It’s kind of unreal and words can’t really describe it at the moment. We’re so happy. We definitely weren’t expecting to win here we were just coming here as a process regatta to work on goals and gather experience. And look what happened! We’re over the moon!”

A gold medal was just the tip of RYA Team GBR’s success at the event. Fellow RYA Volvo National Youth Squad sailors, Tim Gratton and Ed Riley picked up a trophy for finishing second youths in the Open 420 class, ending the series in sixth place overall. Whilst Brits picked up a further three top ten results in the open fleet scooping Great Britain the best performing nation prize to cap off an extremely successful Championship.

RYA Head Double-Handed Coach Rory McCubbin commented: “This is a really fantastic result. A new bench mark has been created for both the mens and womens double-handed youth squad sailors which I’m sure will provide inspiration for them all.”

“We’ve got some really great sailors coming up through the squads and Annabel and Megan are a pair who have put a lot of effort into their team work – that has been a big priority for them – and it has obviously paid off to the highest level. They had a long term plan in place and have been extremely professional in following it.”

He continued: “To be achieving a World title at such a young age with another two youth level seasons ahead of them is very impressive – they really are a very talented pair definitely ones to watch for the future.”

Elsewhere the new year also bought with it a second U19 finish for 16-year-old Laser Radial Youth Squad sailor Elliot Hanson. The Macclesfield rising star picked up the prize finishing fourth overall at the Australian Laser National Championships, Sydney which finished on Tuesday. Wirral’s 17-year-old Cameron Douglas, Hanson’s team mate, also finished in the top ten at the event, ninth overall and fourth in the U19 category.

The Australian National Youth event gets underway tomorrow (Friday 7, January) with high hopes of more success from RYA Team GBR’s three Laser Radial sailors selected to compete at the events.

Results - open class

Results - women