Britains most talented young windsurfers compete for national titles

Britain’s up and coming young windsurfers will be competing for top honours
at Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy at the Volvo RYA Youth Windsurfing
Championships next weekend (15th & 16th September).

This event is one of the most prestigious of the year for young windsurfers
in Britain and is part of the award winning youth sailing programme that Volvo
has been sponsoring for the past four years.

This Championship has been going from strength to strength every year, last
year saw 120 windsurfer’s competing, but an estimated 200 entries are expected
next weekend. The classes that will be competing are Junior One Design, IMCO,
Aloha and Formula.

Several entries are looking to continue their promising seasons, one in particular
is Bryony Shaw. Bryony recently competed at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World
Championships where she was positioned a very promising seventh. Other entries
include Peter Bird who come an impressive 5th in the Junior Aloha Worlds and
Robby Swift who was the runner up at the Youth Formula Windsurfing World Championships.

The Volvo RYA Windsurfing Championships take place only a week before the start
of the Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread Round the World). The Volvo
Ocean is one of the toughest global races, where crews from all over the world
battle against the worlds biggest seas. Former Norwegian Olympic Windsurfer,
Knut Frostad will be skippering the Norwegian entry ‘Djuice Dragons’.

"The Windsurfing Youth champs has always been the premier national
racing event for our young windsurfers and a great introduction to newcomers
but the support of Volvo over the last three seasons has really given the fixture
an exciting new dimension. You get the feeling the top racers want to win that
little bit more and those out of the medals benefit from a real feel good factor."
Said Barry Edgington, National Windsurfing Coach at the RYA.

"It is great to see that Volvo are giving youngsters the opportunity
to race at events such as this, Volvo’s contribution to sailing is now represented
at all levels, giving the youngsters real goals for the future." said
Mark Gooch from Yeovil Motor Company who will be supporting the event.

The Mayor of Weymouth and Portland will visit the Championship to watch the
racing and show her support on Saturday 15th September.

"Volvo are proud to be associated with such an advanced and successful
Championship" said James Kendall, Sports Marketing Manager at Volvo
Car UK. "Many of these competitors will undoubtedly be displaying their
talent on the International scene in the near future and I look forward to watching
the action on the water over the weekend".

The RYA UKWA (UK Windsurfing Association) are holding the Masters Championships
simultaneously, and around 50 adults are expected to join the young windsurfers
at the academy.