The last day of the forty-fifth Youth Sailing World Championships offered some strained finishes as medal spots were mixed about among the 9 events.
Lighter winds hoped-for more than four hundred sailors from seventy-six countries to end a meet that has seen a constant twenty knots throughout. With the wind fractioned,
surprises and tactics were in store and that came to be the case with many shake ups having big bearings on who left with a medal.
The gold medal in the boy’s Laser Radial as well as 420 was already determined, with some of the participants in other fleets experiencing they had a medal, just not what color it would be. There were some who had a medal in their kitty, but it could not quite hold on at the last.
There were interesting turns in the girl’s 29er as last race triggered a shake-up at the top. Still, it was Finland’s Veera Hokka and Sirre Kronlof who were celebrating at the end. The Finnish squad used up their drop in the last race, ending fifteenth but it was plenty to take the gold home.
Back ashore, Kronlof explained what this win means. She stated that it was really awesome. She could not say anything. The last race was very tight. There was so much pressure on but they managed it. She added that it was light winds today and all week they have been in strong winds. They knew before they started that the Spanish are very good in light winds so they were much worried.
