Gilmour & Omay and Thredgold & Soulsby triumph at Australian Youth Championships
David Gilmour & James Omay are AUS Youth 420 Champions for a second year, as well as National Champions! Lauren Thredgold & Megan Soulsby, last seen internationally leading the Australian team at the 2008 World Championships in Athens, are AUS Women’s Youth Champions.
In spite of a 15th in the first race of the day (discarded), David Gilmour & James Omay, who had led throughout, won the Championship resoundingly, with a 24 point margin. Justin Liu & Sherman Cheng (SIN), who had just won the Open Nationals in Perth, finished the Youths having made their way up after a slower start to 2nd overall. Matthew Jerwood & Patrick Vos took 3rd (2nd AUS) and Sean Ott & Adam Lahey were 4th (3rd AUS).
Lauren Thredgold & Megan Soulsby also won decisively, with an 11 point lead over Griselda Khng & Cecilia Low (SIN) (who scored a 1, 2 overall in the final two races to remind their compatriots that the men do not always have it all their own way!). The ‘Psycho Chickens’ (Thredgold & Soulsby) were 43 points ahead of their Australian rivals, Amy Kivell & Jacqueline Gurr and Aimee Negri & Breanna Vos, who tied on points.
So, David Gilmour & James Omay and Lauren Thredgold & Megan Soulsby have been selected to represent Australia at the 2009 ISAF Youth Worlds. With the close competition between the leading Australians and the Singapore teams at the Australian 420 Nationals and now at the Youth Championships, we have been seeing early indications of the excitement to be expected at Buzios, Brazil in July.
The Final Results and excerpts from Laura Baldwin’s Final Newsletter from Mandurah are attached here. Full Daily Newsletters and other information see Yachting Australia website.
