| ISAF is delighted to announce that 24 competitors from 14 nations have been approved for Athlete Participation Programme (APP) funding support to attend the 2009 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship, to be held in Buzios, Brazil from 9-18 July. Thanks to the APP, the Youth Worlds celebrates a century of nations in 2009 as Botswana and Nigeria attend the championship for the first time, increasing the total number of nations who have competed since the first event back in 1971 to 101.
In addition to subsidised travel and entry, the APP also provides free, top-level coaching during the championship. The APP sailors gets the benefit of daily briefings from the World Youth Sailing Trust coach, whilst all competitors can attend the video debrief sessions held at the end of each day's racing. This year there is a new coach for the Championship, with Argentina's two-time Olympic medallist and Volvo Ocean Race competitor Santiago LANGE taking over the reigns from legendary British coach Jim SALTONSTALL, whose 30-year association with the Youth Worlds finally came to end at Århus, Denmark in 2008.
Along with Botswana and Nigeria other nations to benefit from APP funding this year are Andorra, Angola, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Netherlands Antilles, Paraguay, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and South Africa.
Since its introduction in 2003, the APP has directly supported the participation of over 120 sailors and helped introduced 12 new nations to the championship.
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