Youth World Championship Medals for WA Sailors

WA’s youth sailing contingent have achieved stellar performances from the 2018 Youth World Championships in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Rome Featherstone and his skipper Otto Henry collected a silver medal in the boy’s 420 class, whilst Zac Littlewood earned himself a bronze medal in the laser radial competition.

As reigning youth world champions, Henry and Featherstone completed their youth partnership with a second straight championship podium, underlining their strong tactical understanding in tandem.

With a crew from the USA dominating proceedings, the boys overcame a slow start, to secure the silver medal with a race win in their final outing together.

“We struggled to put away a win because of the Americans. I’m not sure what they were doing but they were pretty fast. But, yesterday, in the race that decided if we solidified silver, we won it, so that was a pretty good note to finish on. It was tough – the whole week has been, I guess,” Featherstone reflected.

Littlewood’s podium success followed on from a recent open class world championship win in the laser radial class, showing his wares again, with a solid week of racing.

He entered the final race needing a series of results to fall in his favour if he was to elevate himself into second place.

“I had to get fifth or better and beat (the Argentinian sailor) by two spots,” Littlewood said of his task to finish second overall in the final race.

“He match-raced me pre-start and I didn’t have a very good start. But I came back, I was about 20th at the top mark and then about eighth the whole race. Then, at the last mark, I was sixth and needed one more spot and the guy in front me just crossed in front.

“I wasn’t nervous about the race, I just knew what I had to do and tried my best but just couldn’t do it. I made a few mistakes throughout the week, which cost me and today I lost second by a point. But it’s onwards and upwards from here.”