In beautiful, windy weather the final races in Sopot, Poland brought the first-ever RS:X Youth World Championship to a conclusion. The Medal Races brought a dramatic end to the week-long battle in Sopot.
The main contenders for the World title were the 2007
Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Champion Pierre
LE COQ (FRA), Christian
FREIMUELLER (GER) and the British sailor Richard
HAMILTON. After a thrilling final run, where the best amongst the main contenders for gold was
HAMILTON (fourth place), the final classification changed. The new RS:X Youth World Champion is
FREIMUELLER, in front of
HAMILTON and
LE COQ, who finished the Medal Race eighth, losing second place by just one point to
HAMILTON.
The Medal Race in the women's category turned out very well for Maja DZIARNOWSKA (POL), who outclassed her rivals and finished with a bullet to take second overall. However, DZIARNOWSKA's Medal Race win was not enough for her to overhaul Moana DELLE (GER), who won the Youth World title, with another German Regina STADLER taking the bronze.
In the Under 21 category everything was already decided, with the Polish duo of Malgorzata BIALECKA and Lukasz GRODZICKI already having a large enough advantage over their competitors to ensure first place in their category.