#ISAF YOUTH WORLDS – An Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Cllr. John Bailey hosted a reception in Dun Laoghaire's County Hall last night to officially launch the Four Star Pizza ISAF Youth Worlds which will be hosted in Dun Laoghaire in July of this year writes Cormac Bradley. In welcoming the great and the good from the political and sailing communities to the reception, represented by sitting TD Mary Mitchell O'Connor, County Manager Owen Keegan, County Councillors and Commodores and officials from the host clubs respectively, Councillor Bailey spoke of the Council's delight that an event of this magnitude would be coming to Dun Laoghaire and stressed the importance of this and similar events which generate visitors to the area. The ISAF regatta in particular provided an opportunity to showcase Dun Laoghaire and Ireland to overseas visitors from an expected 65 countries.
Irish Sports Council Chairman, Ciaran Mulvey, alluded to the special relationship between his organization and the ISA, the host authority for the Youth Worlds. He advised the gathering that the ISA was highly regarded by the Sports Council and this had enabled more funding to be directed to their coffers. However, with improved funding came a heightened expectation of performance and the launch of this event was indicative of the type of delivery that satisfied this expectation.
ISA President Niamh McCutcheon thanked Cllr. Bailey for hosting the evening's proceedings and reminded the meeting that the Youth Worlds was one of three ISAF events to be hosted in Ireland this year, the other two being an ISAF Training Conference in March in Howth, and the Annual ISAF Conference in November. She thanked the Sports Council and the main event sponsor, Four Star Pizza for their support in making the Youth Worlds a reality and reminded her audience that without significant sponsorship events like this simply couldn't happen.
Representing Four Star Pizza, Damien O'Malley spoke enthusiastically about the tie up between his company and the regatta. Highlighting his corporate aspirations for marketing their brand of pizzas he said that he believed that the sponsorship of the regatta would assist in the future marketing drive of Four Star Pizzas.........and to prove the point, at the conclusion of the speeches, pizza was served to the invited guests.
Regatta Chairman, Brian Craig closed the proceedings by making a special presentation to Frank Keane of Mitsubishi Motors in support of the company's sustained sponsorship of the Irish Youth Nationals which had attracted a record entry this year. The 2012 event is a precursor to the Youth Worlds and its significance is heightened by the presence of international teams at this weekend's regatta from Great Britain, New Zealand, France, Estonia and Canada.
