RYA Regional Youth Champion 2017 winners announced

Ten promising young sailors and windsurfers from the UK have been revealed as winners of the 2017 RYA Regional Youth Champion Awards

Credit: Paul Wyeth/RYA

Ten young sailors and windsurfers have been recognised for their outstanding achievement and performance, and have been named as winners of the 2017 RYA Regional Youth Champion Awards.

Each of the regional and home countries winners will receive a trophy at the official awards presentation, taking place on 5 March at the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show 2017.

The awards will be presented by the British Sailing Team’s Ben Saxton who competed at the Rio 2016 Games.

Sailing is for everyone: young people take to the water

Created in 2014, the RYA Regional Youth Champion Awards recognise the outstanding achievement and performance of young people across the range of activities the RYA represents, including sailing, windsurfing and powerboating.

Ben Saxton, pictured here training with Nicola Groves, will present the awards. Credit: RYA/You Tube

Winners this year include Youth World Champions in the 29er class Tom Darling (Southern Region) and Crispin Beaumont (Midlands region), who won Gold at the Youth Sailing World Championships in December.

Windsurfer Sam Williams has been named London and South East RYA Regional Youth Champion after progressing from regional Team15 events to compete at national UKWA and RYA events, finishing his season as the inland series overall winner.

RYA Regional Youth Champions 2017:

Eastern: William Pank

London & South East: Sam Williams

Midlands: Crispin Beaumont

North East: Ellie Clark

North West: Sam Cooper

Southern: Tom Darling

South West: Finn Hawkins

Wales: Daniel Whiteley

Northern Ireland: Liam Glynn

Scotland: Andrew Brown

Commenting on the announcement, the RYA director of sport development Alistair Dickson said: “We’re delighted to recognise the achievements of these sailors and windsurfers who have all shown lots of hard work, sacrifice and determination to the sport.”

“The awards also help to emphasise the endless support of our many volunteers who work so hard at the club level to give our sailors the best possibly start to their future sailing careers,” he added.