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US Athletes at Laser Radial Youth World Championships
| PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (July 23, 2002) – Aided
by financial support from Vanguard Sailboats (Portsmouth, R.I.), five young American sailors were among
the 174 athletes representing 20 countries at the recent 2002 Laser Radial
Youth World Championships. The Buffalo Canoe Club in Ontario, Canada, hosted
six days of racing on Lake Erie from July 14-19, 2002, for competitors who
will not reach their 19th birthday in 2002. Bern Noack (Belmont, Mass.),
sailing coach at Harvard University, acted as team leader/coach for the five
sailors who were named by the Olympic Sailing Committee of US SAILING, national
governing body for the sport, to represent the U.S.A. at this
championship.
The Laser Class Grand Prix Ranking System was employed to determine the recipients of the special assistance. Although racing was cancelled for the final day of the championship, 10 races were completed for the series allowing competitors to drop their two worst finishes. Following the first three days of racing, the competitors were divided into gold, silver and bronze fleets for the finals, with all five members of the U.S. team qualifying for the 59-boat gold fleet. Greg Helias (Santa Monica, Calif.) finished 24th overall; followed by Jeff Cruise (Naples, Fla.) in 27th; and Matt Barry (Riverside, Conn.) in 33rd place. Bobby Noonan (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and Giancarlo Nucci (Old Greenwich, Conn.) were 39th and 45th, respectively. The championship title was won by Tonko Kuzmanic of Croatia. The top-finishing American was Emery Wager (Seattle, Wash.) who placed 15th overall. For more information on Vanguard visit www.teamvanguard.com or call 1.800.966.SAIL. Additional information on the US national teams is available online at www.ussailing.org/Olympics/. |
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