Road to Youth Worlds starts in Uruguay for emerging nations

When World Sailing announced the Youth Sailing World Championship Emerging Nations Program (ENP) in February 2015, the idea was to try and narrow the performance gap and promote worldwide competition and to increase the number of sailors from emerging MNAs participating at the Youth Worlds.

Heading in to the Aon Youth Sailing World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand on 14 – 20 December the program continues to support sailors and coaches with many gaining scholarships from the 2016 ENP clinics.
 
The first of the clinics took place in Montevideo, Uruguay from 3- 10 April and World Sailing nominated experts Rob Holden and Eduardo Sylvestre continued their goal of passing on much needed knowledge to help the emerging nation participants.
 
The selected equipment for the clinic was Laser Radial and there were 17 sailors and 10 coaches from nine countries – Cayman Islands, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and the host nation Uruguay.
 
The ENP is not only about the sailors, there is also a focus on coaches who attend the clinics with the intention on taking the skills they learn back to their country and develop the sport and individuals for themselves. The clinic in Uruguay was primarily aimed at developing the skills of performance coaches but the sailors who attended were also assisted in their training to improve their skills as Laser Radial sailors. There was also an opportunity for the MNA officials who made the trip to discuss how World Sailing could help in their regional development.
 
Because of the South American location, a large majority of the attendees spoke Spanish so Nominated Expert, Eduardo Sylvestre, translated the whole clinic for them to ensure that no information was lost.
 
As with all the clinics there was time spent in the classroom but also a lot of time on the water at the Yacht Club Uruguay who were great hosts with good facilities. There was planning, boat handling skills, mark rounding’s and tactics all taught on a personal basis so that the sailors and coaches could learn as much as possible and take as much back home with them to pass on to others and continue the development of the emerging nations.
 
As with all sport, and especially in the ENP, there are people of different abilities, but there will be four sailors who will make the trip to New Zealand to represent their country at the Youth Worlds thanks to the clinic. They are:
Abigail Affoo (TTO)
Nicolle Alexandra Gonzalez Arria (VEN)
Santiago Diz Becerra (URU)
Matais Rosembers (GUA)
 
Following the first clinic of 2016, there will be a legacy not only in Uruguay where the clinic was held, but for the countries in attendance who take skills back home. There is also the four that will get the opportunity to test themselves against the best youth sailors in the world this December.
 
Emerging Nations Program
 
The Youth Worlds Emerging Nations Program (ENP) aims to increase the number of sailors and MNAs participating at the Youth Worlds, with the aim to narrow the performance gap and promote worldwide competition. With this in mind the ENP clinics focus on coach performance, sailor ability and national training scheme development, with the goal to enhance sailing within the home nations, allowing future generations and sailing as a sport to benefit.
 
Youth Worlds
 
Auckland, New Zealand is hosting the Aon Youth Sailing World Championships, the 46th edition, from 14 to 20 December 2016. More than 380 sailors from 66 nations sailing in more than 260 boats across nine disciplines will compete in New Zealand.
 
Website – www.isafyouthworlds.com/home.php