The weekend of the 14 and 15 October 2017 saw the annual RYA Youth and Junior Team Racing Championships, also known as the Eric Twiname Championships take place at Farmoor Reservoir near Oxford.
48 teams took part in two age divisions, U19 and U16 with teams representing schools, sailing clubs, regions and national squads – in essence all the top youth sailors in the country. Sevenoaks entered three teams, two in the U19 and one in the U16 divisions.
The U16s went into the event feeling confident as they are reigning schools U16 national champions. They had a strong first day and finished stage 1 in 3rd place overall, comfortably qualifying for top 5 gold league. Sunday saw some really competitive racing in the top league and Sevenoaks narrowly missed out on a semi-final spot, finishing up 5th overall and 2nd placed school.
In the U19s the Sevenoaks B team had a solid event and finished 12th overall. The A team Finished stage 1 in 3rd place overall and came through a highly competitive gold league in 2nd place, qualifying for the semi-finals where they defeated long term rivals Magdalen College School 2-1 to go through to meet West Kirby SC in the final.
The final was incredibly close and came all the way down to the finish line in the 3rd and deciding race, it was so close that at the finish it wasn’t clear which team had won and the team had to wait a few tense minutes for confirmation which when delivered was met with much jubilation! Sevenoaks are U19 National Team Racing Champions, a great achievement for a school team and even more so given 4/6 of the teams are Lower Sixth, thus they can have another shot next year. The moment was made all the more special by having the trophy presented by Old Sennockian and double Olympic medallist Ian Walker who now works for the national governing body as racing director. The team have shown incredible dedication and application and should feel very proud of this achievement, well done to you all!
Sailing for Sevenoaks:
U19s Sevenoaks A – First overall and U19 National Champions
Matthew Caiger (Capt)
Annabel Richards
Cossie Lewis
Federico Roma
Nicholas Davies
Charlie Cooper
U19s Sevenoaks B – 12th Overall
Anne Marie Ratnage (Capt)
Alice Parker
Ellie Wild
Izzy Willis
Sean Lee
Ed Salmon
U16s – 5th overall and 2nd school team
William Caiger (capt)
Becky Caiger
Josh Davies
Ian Ratnage
