Tricky, shifty, winds of 8-15kts on the Clyde provided the stage for the final two races of the Radial Youth Worlds in Largs, Scotland, and it was a memorable day for a young American. Seventeen-year old Erika Reineke (22 pts.) who is a member of US Sailing’s Development Team, came, saw and won, just as she had predicted at the outset of the event. And to ad insult to injury for the rest of the world’s best junior Radial girls, she did it with a race to spare. She sailed once yesterday and showed why she deserved the title. Buried in the fleet after the first beat, she never lost her cool and came back to finish fourth. Manami Doi JPN (49) managed to retain her second place overall with a seventh in the last race, while Michelle Broekhuizen NED (53) had to settle for third, however winning the European title as best European sailor.
Yesterday’s 7th and 37th may have ranked among his worst results of Reineke’s male pendent, Italian Giovanni Coccoluto (61) closed the deal by winning the Laser Radial Youth Boys’ World and European Championship after building a big points cushion throughout the week. Like Reineke, Coccoluto had won Bronze at the recent ISAF Youth World Championship in Turkey, but his final margin was just two points over Tadeusz Kubiak POL (63) who squandered his title chances with a capsize on Friday. In third, another Italian with Luca Antognioli (64), who nearly made it a double-tricolore triumph. Mitchell Kiss USA (76), one of the co-favorites, who held a podium spot Friday, slipped to fifth with two results in the mid-twenties, but won the Under 17 class. Other US finishers: Mateo Vargas benefited from the second discard and moved up to 20th, while Reed Baldridge slipped to 34th with a BFD in the last race. Domenic Bove in 43rd and Matt Mollerus in 50th were the other Gold fleet sailors. On the girl’s side the only other US sailor in Gold, Catherine Shanahan, finished in 43rd. Leonie Schuurmans took 9th in the silver fleet. The report and the complete results.