July 25th - August 1st
The pinnacle of the open entry youth windsurfing world championships staged by the RS:X Class with the support of Palmalife, the Yalikavak local governement,the Turkish Sailing Federation and Turkish Airlines was the biggest yet.109 competitors.
78 Youth Men (27#U17) and 26 Youth Women (5#U17) from 14 countries and 3 continents enjoyed champagne racing over 6 days.
Youth Men
Medal Race. The RC took their time to settle the course and make ready. Then the top 10 were off on a 0.38 mile beat. Many sailing their first ever medal race. Michalis Malekkides (CYP9) took 23 minutes to sail a perfect race and claim the top step on the podium. Thomas Goyard (FRA356) took 2nd and Manfredi Misuraca (ITA1) 3rd and the bronze medal.
Manfredi is just 16 years old but banged in consistent results whatever the wind speeds. Italian windsurfing has a future champion in the making here with out doubt. However the story of the medal race was one of disappointment for Antonio Christofis (GRE23) and Leonidas Qikononidis (GRE11) who both missed out a buoy in the slalom section and were black flagged for their trouble.
Youth Women
Over in the Youth Women's fleet, everyone was trying to find an answer to the dominant performances of Sybille and Leonore Bosch (FRA11 & 10 respectively) They were both super consistent in the light to medium air but were found wanting when it blew.
Izzy Hamilton (GBR) was the one to spring to life this time. She does not go well in anything under 10 knots and there were just 3 such races. But when the wind speeds climb into double figures she is hard to beat. She took gold in the medal race and was so far in front one could be forgiven for thinking that the race was over before it began.
She took 13 minutes to sail the course. Behind her the slalom section took on the appearance of a demolition derby as one after another the women blew their jibes under the pressure. It was Leonore Bosch (FRA10) who sailed majestically through the fleet to claim the silver medal performing each jibe with grace and ease. Helene Noesmoen (FRA 57) was inconsolable. She had blown a podium position by falling within sight of the finish.
Results
Men
1. Michalis Malekkides (CYP)
2. Thomas Goyard (FRA)
3. Manfredi Misuraca (ITA)
Women
1. Izzy Hamilton (GBR)
2. Leonore Bosch (FRA)
3. Lo Sin Lam (HKG)
Links
Minute by minute updates were posted on http://www.twitter.com/windsurfing2012 through out the day.
Video postcard interviews were also posted on http://www.viddler.com/explore/RSXClassWindsurfing/videos/8/ or http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5616431 and images were load onto http://www.flickr.com/photos/14887359@N06/
The RS:X Youth World Championship Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RSX-Youth-World-Championships/123318551702
