Local Sailors Take on The 470 Youth World Championships

Local Sailors take on the 470 Youth Worlds

Brianna and Courtney Reynolds-Smith, local twins from Murrays Bay Yacht Club, are about to embark on their biggest challenge yet. Next month will see them head to Japan for the 470 Youth World Championships in Enoshima, Japan.

Racing in the 470 class, the year 13 Westlake Girls students are building on the experience they gained racing in the youth 420 class. Last year they travelled to Trebeurden, France for the French 420 National Champs, then onto San Remo, Italy for the 420 World Champs. They raced well at both events, gaining much-needed experience in larger fleet racing. This spring-boarded them to winning the female nomination at the NZL trials event for the 420 class to race at the Aon World Sailing Champs held locally at Torbay in December last year. The girls did remarkably well at this pinnacle event, placing 8th in the tightly-knit fleet.

With the guidance of Yachting NZ and the All Blacks High performance fitness coach, a rigorous training regime has been set for them, which sees the girls up early every morning to train- a mix of strength and endurance. All followed by as many hours on the water as manageable - on top of being high achievers studying for NCEA level 3. It keeps them very busy.

Having bought Olympic level kit from Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie - gold and silver medallists for the 470’s from the last two Olympic games - these girls are aiming to be best prepared for their own Olympic campaign – Japan 2020! They strive to make the best of their fast boat and are using this to accelerate their competence in the Olympic class yacht. Not only this, but the prestige of their boat - their training boat having won gold in London - constantly pushes them to aim high and dream big.

ENDS

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