October 31, 2025
4 minutes reading time
World Sailing concludes Residential Phase of High-Performance Coach Scholarship Programme with the Andrew Simpson Foundation
World Sailing has announced the successful conclusion of the intensive four-week residential phase of the High-Performance Coach Scholarship Training Programme. This initiative, funded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and delivered in partnership with the Andrew Simpson Foundation’s Performance Academy, brought together nine coaches from emerging sailing nations.
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The programme is strategically designed to equip coaches with the advanced skills, knowledge, and confidence required to build and sustain high-performance sailing programmes in their home countries, fostering the sport’s growth globally.
Participants this year were:
- Viliame Ratulu (FIJ)
- Roy Govinden (SEY)
- Aurelia Zulueta (CHI)
- Mercedes Delgado (PUR)
- Mantvydas Cerniauskas (LTU)
- Michelle Kwan (HKG)
- Janis Preiss (LAT)
- Malik Hoveling (ARU)
- Katia Belabbas (ALG)
This was the first Performance Coaches Scholarship, launched in March 2025.
The updated programme features a new format, designed and developed over the past 12 months in close collaboration with the Performance Academy. The new structure blends intensive technical coaching education with applied learning, mentoring, and continuous long-term development support.
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Over the four-week period, the coaches completed a curriculum which featured:
- World Sailing Technical Coaches Courses (Levels 2 & 3)
- Specialist workshops in nutrition, strength and conditioning, psychology, and performance planning
- Essential powerboat handling and first aid certifications
- A range of practical coach development and application sessions
With this foundational phase complete, the programme now progresses to a six-month mentoring and in-situ support stage. This will provide the coaches with ongoing guidance as they implement their new skills within their home environments, ensuring a lasting impact on their national sailing structures.
Roy Govinden, an ILCA coach from the Seychelles, said, “I joined the World Sailing Scholarship in order to enhance my knowledge about coaching, deepen my technical skills to help our sailor back home. Overall the course has changed my outlook in terms of how I coach. The biggest takeaway has been around how coaching is about being more sailor-centric rather than coach-led, and how I can inspire sailors to take ownership of the learning.”
“I was presented with the opportunity to join the scholarship, which was an opportunity I couldn’t miss out on,” said Mercedes Delgado, an Optimist coach from Puerto Rico. “Learning a lot about the processes of how to run sessions and get the most of them has been most beneficial to me and will help me be creative to help my sailors to learn.”
Mailk Hoveling, an iQFOiL coach from Aruba, commented, “As coaches we are not just teaching athletes but should develop ourselves and I want to give back to the sailing community in Aruba. It all starts at the grassroots level so I want to focus on bringing more young sailors into the community and developing them into high-performance sailors. I have learned it is also not about how many hours you spend on the water, but how you spend those hours to have more effective training sessions.”
“We are exceptionally proud to see this new framework for coach development come to life,” said Fiona Kidd, World Sailing’s Head of International Development. “The engagement from the nine participating coaches has been outstanding. This blended-learning approach, developed with our partners at Performance Academy, is a significant step forward in our mission to support long-term, sustainable growth in our emerging member nations. By investing in the education of these talented coaches, we are strengthening the entire global coaching network. We are excited to support them through the upcoming mentoring phase and to witness the positive impact they will undoubtedly have on high-performance sailing worldwide.”
“Personally, it’s been really inspirational and rewarding to have the opportunity to work with and help support these coaches develop. Collaborating closely with World Sailing to create a structure that better supports coaches’ long-term growth and seeing that framework come to life, has been especially pleasing to be a part of. It’s exciting to see how this new approach will continue to evolve and strengthen high-performance coaching across sailing worldwide, and hopefully really impacts the lives of sailors around the world,” added James Parker-Mowbray, Performance Academy Manager.
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The participants have now returned home and will complete two online modules between January and August next year to finish the programme, these modules are Developing Performance and Supporting performance.
World Sailing offers two separate Coach Scholarship options, the Development Coaches Scholarship and the Performance Coaches Scholarship, each providing specific in-depth skills development for an athlete in preparation to attend an international event.
- Development Coaches Scholarship
This programme is aimed at Coach and Instructors with a drive to develop their grassroots sailing program. The course will focus on the skills to teach sailing as well as how to develop a Learn to Sail and Learn to Race Programme for Sailors of all ages, how to run a sailing school, how to manage coaches and volunteers, and end with progressing to learn to race coaching.
- Performance Coaches Scholarship
This programme aims to develop High Performance Coaches working at a national level within their MNA. Attendees will be working with national level Youth to Adult athletes and want to improve their skills and knowledge as a coach, as their athletes start to compete internationally. Coaches will receive a year-long programme that can be applied to their own sailors and competitive landscape.
Read more about both scholarship programmes on the World Sailing website.