Both of Ireland's Youth Laser Radial sailors are battling hard to stay in contention at the Youth Sailing World Championships after six races races sailed in New Zealand. The National Yacht Club's Nicole Hemeryck has dropped three places to eleventh in the Girls Laser Radial fleet and Royal Cork's Johnny Durcan went from 12th to 18th in the Boys fleet after a black flag starting line penalty in race six. Full up–to–date results are here.
In the boys fleet, Australia's Finnian Alexander (a strong performer at the KBC–Radial worlds at the Royal St. George Yacht Club this Summer) took two bullets to open up an 18–point gap back to Denmark's Patrick Doepping and New Zealand's George Gautrey who both have 33 in the boy's Laser Radial. Alexander however will tread with caution in the coming days as he has a disqualification on his scorecard from the very first race of the Youth Worlds. So far, so good for the Aussie sailor since then though.
Sandra Luli (CRO) is still top of the girl's Laser Radial, but Rio 2016 Olympian Dolores Moreira Fraschini (URU) is chasing hard. The Uruguayan took a bullet and a 10th compared to the sixth and discarded 20th Luli scored. The Croatian still leads by two points overall. Germany's Hannah Anderssohn rounds out the podium in third.
Racing continues at the Youth Worlds and is scheduled to begin at 09:55 local time at the Torbay Sailing Club on Monday 19 December.
