Two titles were decided today at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships on Suyong Bay, Busan, Korea the site of the 1988 Olympic Regatta.

France’s record in the 420 dinghy was further enhanced as Marie Lumeau and Claire Bossard won the girls double-handed class after they boosted their margin to an unassailable 20 points with two first places today. The duo from Kierichen, Brest, where they are at the Etudes de Sport Lycee there, were spurred to their success this time by the disappointment of their ninth last year in Poland. Counting seven first places and a third they put their success down to the hard work that they have done over the past year, and bolstering their mental strengths.

Lumeau commented: “Last year it was in our heads, we lacked the concentration and the means to deal with the pressure, but we have worked to stay relaxed in difficult situations. Here we have not been thinking about the race, but only of what we know and what we can do. We have worked really hard and always just want to finish with a good result. We came here knowing we are fast and that these would be our conditions – light winds – and thinking we could make it on to the podium, but it is wonderful to win.”

While France have won the overall team award the Volvo Trophy, more times than any other nation – three times in the last five years – this is only their second ISAF Youth Worlds gold medal since 1999.

In the Mistral Boys class Poland’s Lukasz Grodzicki sailed a conservative pair of races to be sure of his overall title. Grodzicki made his discard in the first race of the day but then secured his world championship victory when he took third gun. His gold medal follows on from the win last year of Kamil Lewandowski and is Poland’s seventh gold medal in the last six years which equals Australia’s record of seven golds since 1999.

A rolling bank of thick mist reduced visbility to a difficult level and forced the postponement of the second race of the day for 420s and for the Hobie 16s. Controversially the Boys second race for the Lasers was abandoned but the Girls race went ahead.

After winning the first race to level the scores with the USA’s Paige Railey, China’s Xu Lijia had made a confident start and was leading the series penultimate race by ten boat lengths by the first windward mark but could not find the wing mark in the poor visibility. The chasing pack found it first and she dropped into the depths of the fleet, rescuing a sixth place.

Xu commented: “It was difficult for me because I have no compass and we were all looking and by the time one of the others had found it I had gone too far and the race was lost. I am disappointed but it is good experience for me for the future. I use a compass in my Europe but don’t have one here, but I am just beginning in the class so have to learn.”

Railey goes into tomorrow’s race with the advantage not only of five points in hand over Xu Lijia but the Chinese girl is vulnerable with two OCS disqualifications as discards.

Railey who was third in Nova Scotia three years ago, then won in Madeira in 2003 and was seventh last year added: “My plan is to go out and just sail with the Chinese girl and I should be able to win. I figure that I have to sail less than 13th and be with her than I will be OK. Put it this way if I don’t win it my coach is going to be very unhappy. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed.”

The other classes look set to go to the wire. In the Laser class a fifth today was enough to keep Britain’s Giles Scott on top of the 36-boat fleet, but only by a single point from France’s Jean Baptise Bernaz, while the Netherlands Rutger van Schaardenburg collected his discard today with a 29th, but remains a threat in third, only seven points adrift.

Commenting as he came off the water Scott said: “It was pretty similar to the other days on our course. You had to get a good start and head right and get the layline right. Now I am not sure what my strategy will be tomorrow because I have not looked at the scores. I am not sure whether there will be the chance to match race or not.”

But it is the battle in the Hobie 16s which could be the closest. The Australian pair Evan Walker and Kyle Langford lead by just a single point over Britain’s Tom Phipps and Jon Cook who share the same points, 21, as France’s third placed Julien Villion and Martin Bataille

While the pursuit of the individual titles will be focusing the minds of the sailors tomorrow, the French have extended their lead to 49 points in the Volvo Trophy international team contest ahead of Britain.

Results (Day 5 standings)

Mistral Girls: 1. BM Dominguez (ESP) 14 pts, 2. AS Le Page (FRA) 20 pts, 3. L Linares (ITA) 23pts, 4. M Davidovich (ISR) 25 pts, 5. C Chun (CHN) 42 points

Mistral Boys: 1. L Grodzicki (POL) 13 pts, 2. P Lecoq (FRA) 29 points, 3. J.Moreno (ESP) 33 pts, 4..N Mashiah (ISR) 36 pts 5. A Sofroniou (CYP) 39 pts

420 Girls: 1. M Lumeau, C Bossard (FRA) 10 pts, 2. M Magill, B Provancha (USA) 30 pts, 3. M Basilio, G Biekarck (BRA) 31 pts, 4. H Mills, P Webster (GBR) 34 pts5. T. Pacheco, M. Padron (ESP) 42 pts

420 Boys: 1. WC Teo, T Koh (SIN) 26 pts, 2. W Saito, H Yoshinaga (JPN) 30 points, 3. T Mallindine, J Clark (GBR) 48 pts, 4. A.Roberts, N. Martin (USA) 52 pts, 5. T. Silva, F Gomes (POR) 53 pts

Hobie 16: 1. Walker, E Langford (AUS) 21 pts, 2. T Phipps, J Cook (GBR) 22 pts 3. J Villion, M Bataille (FRA) 22 pts 4. JI Maegli, AC Guirola (GUA) 24 pts 5. V Bissaro, L Lejari (ITA) 36 pts

Laser Boys: 1. G.Scott (GBR) 29pts, 2. JB Bernaz (FRA) 30 pts 3. R Van Schaardenburg (NED) 36 pts, 4. B McLay (NZL) 43 pts, 5. R Weber (USA) 55 pts

Laser Girls: 1. P Railey (USA) 17 pts, 2. X Lijia (CHN) 22 pts, 3. A. Young (GBR) 37 pts, 4. T Mihelic (CRO) 52 points, 5. AH Lindberg (DEN) 58 points