Twelve youth sailors have qualified for US SAILING's 2011 Youth World Team, and will receive invitations to represent the United States at the ISAF Youth World Championship in Zadar, Croatia from 7-11 July 2011.
Eight of the athletes were selected based on first-place finishes in their classes at the 2011 US SAILING ISAF Youth World Qualifier at the Houston Yacht Club, in La Porte, Texas, while the boards and multihull team members were chosen by resume and did not compete at the Youth World Qualifer.
The members of US SAILING's 2011 Youth World Team are:
Laser Radial (boy's one person dinghy) -
Mitchell Kiss (Holland, Mich.)
Laser Radial (girl's one person dinghy) -
Erika Reineke (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
International 420s (boy's two person dinghy) -
Reinier Eenkema van Dijk (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) and
Spencer McDonough (Greenwich, Conn.)
International 420s (girl's two person dinghy) -
Morgan Kiss (Holland, Mich.) and
Christina Lewis (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
29er (open high performance dinghy) -
Antoine Screve (Ross, Calif.) and
Mac Agnese (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
RS:X (boy's and girl's windsurfer) -
Ian Stokes (Norfolk, Va.) and
Margot Samson (Clearwater, Fla.)
Multihull - Taylor Reiss and
Matthew Whitehead (both Panama City, Fla.)
"We have a very strong team with some returning representatives," said High Performance Director/Head Coach Kenneth Andreasen.
"At the Trials, the competitors were challenged with a range in conditions. Each class winner truly put in a strong performance and are worthy of taking on the best in the world this summer at the ISAF Youth Worlds."
The 2011 team comes with an impressive string of trophies and experience: At last week's US SAILING's Rolex Miami OCR, Erika Reineke finished an impressive 20th out of 54 in the Laser Radial among a strong international fleet. She won the 2010 Laser Radial Youth Worlds in Largs, Scotland and a bronze medal at the 2010 ISAF Youth Worlds in Turkey. At December's Orange Bowl Regatta in Miami, Antoine Screve and Mac Agnese won the 104-boat International 420 class.
Reineke, Lewis, Screve, Agnese, and the Kiss siblings are also members of the 2011 US Sailing Development Team (USSDT), which includes young sailors identified as Olympic hopefuls in the Laser, Laser Radial, Finn, I420, 470, 29er and 49er classes.
For complete results from the Youth World Qualifier, please visit Houston Yacht Club's web site:
http://www.houstonyachtclub.com/index.html
For more information about the 2011 ISAF World Championship in Zadar, Croatia, please visit the event web site:
http://www.isafyouthworlds.com/