CYA Youth National Sailing Championships 2008
Halifax – Prince Edward Island Sailors had impressive results at the ING CYA Youth National Sailing Championships at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (RNSYS) in Halifax.The four day championships concluded Tuesday. There were 199 athletes on 155 boats competing in seven classes.
Monic Dagenais, from The Charlottetown Yacht Club (CYC) competed in the Byte CII class. She started the regatta with a first place finish, followed by two second places, and another first to finish in first place overall after the first day. There were only three races on the second day, she had another first place finish, but had slipped into second place overall. Unfortunately she was not able to finish the regatta, but was proud to post some of Prince Edward Island's strongest results at a national sailing event.
The Laser Radial fleet was the largest fleet at the Nationals and was split into boys and girls fleets. PEI's Canada Games hopefuls, Kate Thompson and Eric Dagenais, also both from the Charlottetown Yacht Club posted several strong finishes throughout the regatta. There were 27 entries in the female class representing 8 provinces from across Canada. Kate posted a top ten finish on the first day, and 7 top 20 finishes finishing 22nd overall.
Nine provinces were represented in the Male Radial fleet, with 39 entries. Eric was one of the youngest athletes competing in this class and posted a very strong 20th overall position. His results improved each day of the event, including a top ten finish, and concluding the regatta with 13th and 14th place finishes.
With each province only sending their best sailors to this event, these are very impressive results the islands very young sailing team. The 2008 ING CYA Youth National Sailing Championships was a qualifier event for the 2009 National Youth Sailing Team. Members of this team will be picked to represent the country at the 2009 World Youth Sailing Championships and are recognized as Canada's next generation Olympic athletes.
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