Great Britain have put in a fantastic performance at the 2004 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, Poland, to win two gold and three bronze medals and finish runner-up in the battle for top nation.

In the Laser class Nick Thompson from Lymington kept a cool head on the final day. Rounding the windward mark first he carefully covered his opposition, making sure he was not robbed of the gold medal. His tactics worked and he was rewarded with the gold medal, winning by ten points from Towci Stipanovic of Croatia. Simon Groteluschen of Germany won the bronze medal.

Thompson said: “I am over the moon. There was a lot of tension going into the final day so I am really pleased that I pulled it off as I have been working really hard for this event. There has been a great team atmosphere this week and I think that has really helped as we have all been encouraging each other.”

Gold also went to Tom Phipps and Jonathan Cook in the Hobie 16 class. The young British pairing from Falmouth sailed a great week, leading for most of the championship, so were delighted when a final second place gave them the overall win.

Phipps commented: “We were really nervous going into the final day’s racing but we are so happy to have won. We were hoping for a top three result here so we can not believe that we won the gold.”

Phipps and Cook won by two points from Julien Villion and Martin Bataille of France with Juan Maegli and Jason Hess of Guatemala third.

To compliment the two golds, Great Britain also won three bronze medals. After finishing fifth at this event last year, Charlotte Dobson from Helensburgh was determined to better this result and her determination won through. Sarah Steyaert of France put in a convincing win in the class, but Dobson fought all the way and was happy to settle for bronze medal position just behind Jo Aleh of New Zealand.

The British put in a final charge in the 420 fleet and both the girls and boys will be leaving Poland with bronze medals around their necks. After a slightly shaky start Jonathan McGovern (Hollingworth Lake) and Stuart Bithell (Rochdale) put in the results when it counted and after scoring a number of top five results won the bronze medal just behind Thomas and Mathieu Rahier of France. Nathan Outteridge sailing with Iain Jensen for Australia put in a convincing performance to win his third youth gold medal.

Fellow 420 sailors Pippa Wilson (Lymington) and Harriette Trumble (London) also put in a great performance to win the bronze medal just behind Lydia Koppin and Kristina Kummer of Germany. Again the Australians dominated with Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson winning the gold.

In the Mistral classes, Richard Potter (Nottingham) just missed out on the medals finishing in fifth place overall with fellow Mistral sailor Jilly Bromley (Flintshire) 10th.

RYA Youth Squads Manager (and Team Manager at the event) Simon Wergen said: “I am absolutely delighted. The team have done extremely well and ground it out in the second half of the championship when it really counted. They have all worked really hard and I am very proud of every one of them.”

The combination of these performances saw Great Britain finish runner-up in the Volvo Trophy for best overall nation just behind France. Despite just missing out on the Trophy, the RYA Team GBR Youth Worlds Team can be proud that they won the biggest medal haul for Great Britain at a Youth Worlds Championship.

RYA Racing Manager John Derbyshire summed up the performance saying: “It is a terrific result for Great Britain’s youth sailing with personal bests by sailors in all seven events. This result reflects well on the change made to the youth programme since the introduction of Lottery Funding and will provide future Olympic classes with medal-winning sailors.”

Overall Results

Hobie 16

1, Tom Phipps/Jonathan Cook, GBR (2,1,(DSQ),1,2,1,3,1,1,2,(7),2) 16 pts

2, Julien Villion/Martin Bataille, FRA ((DNF),3,2,2,1,2,1,(4),2,3,1,1) 18 pts

3, Juan Maegli/Jason Hess, GUA (1,2,2,3,(DSQ),3,2,2,5,6,(9),8) 33 pts

Mistral girls

1, Zofia Klepacka, POL (1,1,1,1,1,(2),1,1,1,1,1,(DNF)) 10 pts

2, Sophie Anne Le Page, FRA (2,(4),3,3,2,1,2,2,2,2,(OCS),3) 22 pts

3, Laura Linares, ITA (3,2,(5),4,5,3,3,(7),5,3,2,4) 34 pts

GBR

10, Jilly Bromley ((DNF),9,10,DNF,8,7,4,8,8,11,7,(DNF)) 86 pts

Mistral boys

1, Kamil Lewandowski, POL (2,1,4,15,(OCS),1,1,1,1,1,3,(DNF)) 30 pts

2, Nimrod Esposito, ISR ((9),7,5,2,(OCS),4,3,8,3,3,4,2) 41 pts

3, Federica Esposito, ITA (6,2,6,1,2,2,(9),(10),6,5,7,5) 42 pts

GBR

5, Richard Potter, GBR (1,4,8,5,1,5,2,(13),(16),7,11,6) 50 pts

Laser Radial girls

1, Sarah Steyaert, FRA (1,1,(8),2,(9),4,1,1,5,2,4,(DNC)) 29 pts

2, Jo Aleh, NZL (2,5,1,8,(10),9,(13),2,6,7,3,5) 48 pts

3, Charlotte Dobson, GBR (17,3,2,1,8,3,4,(OCS),7,4,2,(20)) 51 pts

Laser boys

1, Nick Thompson, GBR (4,2,4,1(10),5,1,(13),1,(DNF),6,3) 37 pts

2, Towci Stipanovic, CRO (3,(BFD),5,4,11,1,(DSQ),7,8,1,1,6) 47 pts

3, Simon Groteluschen, GER (2,9,3,6,(15),4,4,(19),4,2,7,11) 52 pts

420 boys

1, Nathan Outteridge/Iain Jensen, AUS (1,2,1,4,1,2,1,5,(15),3,1,(6)) 21 pts

2, Thomas Rahier/Mathieu Rahier, FRA (3,3,2,8,7,5,(19),6,2,8,(14),7) 51 pts

3, Jonathan McGovern/Stuart Bithell, GBR (9,5,8,5,13,(15),4,4,1,6,2,(23)) 62 pts

420 girls

1, Elise Rechichi/Tessa Parkinson, AUS (1,1,2,1,(11),1,8,1,2,2,1,(19)) 20 pts

2, Lydia Koppin/Kristina Kummer, GER (5,(22),6,3,3,3,7,2,5,7,4,(9)) 45 pts

3, Pippa Wilson/Harriette Trumble, GBR (2,(20),14,8,2,(15),4,4,3,1,2,13) 53 pts

Volvo Trophy (Best Overall Nation)

1, France 400 pts

2, Great Britain 400 pts

3, Australia 378 pts