Young sailor makes British team for Laser world championships

Local sailor Maggie Adamson has qualified for this year’s Laser Radial Youth World Championships as part of the British team.

She had to travel down to the south of England three times in the past month for the qualifying regattas, with 16 team places available for the girls and 19 for the boys.

The events were two “qualifiers” and the Youth National Championships. The qualifiers were open to anyone of any age with Charlotte Dobson and Andrea Brewster, part of the women’s Olympic squad, and Beijing gold medallist Paul Goodison competing.

Maggie, from Fladdabister, said it was a great experience. To learn from these people and to compete on the same course was a great opportunity.

The first of the three events was held in Plymouth with 102 boats competing. For all the regattas boys and girls race against each other on the same course and Maggie finished first Scottish girl, 22nd overall girl and 77th overall.

The second event was the Youth National Championships, a week-long event at Weymouth, the 2012 Olympic sailing venue. Shetland was well represented as Lewis Anderson from Lerwick and Maggie are part of the Scottish squad.

There were seven different classes competing with over 320 sailors. Lewis and Maggie were both in the Laser Radial class with 109 boats altogether.

Maggie’s best results were seventh and 13th, which placed her 11th with the second Scottish boat and first Scottish girl in the silver fleet. Lewis finished 16th with the third Scottish boat and second Scottish boy, also in the silver fleet.

Maggie said the regatta was also a great experience for both the Shetland sailors as it tested endurance over all four days of competition, and it was great to race at the Olympic venue.

The final event for Maggie, and the one where she would find out if all the effort was worth it, was held at Hayling Island near Portsmouth. Again this was a good show of boats with 102 in the Laser Radial class.

Maggie’s first race was her best, albeit she had to do penalty turns for another boat altering course, and she finished 29th.

The committee only managed to race one full race on the first day as halfway through the second the wind completely died away and they had to shorten the course.

On the second day the sailors had to wait a couple of hours for the wind to fill in but the committee managed to race a full race before the last scheduled time. Overall Maggie was first Scottish girl, 21st girl and 76th overall.

After returning home she found out she had made the team for the World Championships, to be held in Larges from 17th to 25th July. The competition is expected to have over 300 competitors from around 40 different countries.

It will be the second World Championships Maggie has taken part in, having competed in Croatia in 2008 in the smaller Laser 4.7 rig, where she finished 100th.

Maggie said would like to thank Streamline Shipping Group and the Shetland Sailing Centre for all the assistance and support.