France Espoirs Championship– La Rochelle

 

Organised by La Rochelle Nautique under the aegis of the French Sailing Federation, the France Espoirs Championship saw 600 young contestants aged 13 to 25 competing across 12 categories. Among them was a delegation of six sailors from Yacht Club de Monaco’s Sports Section who made the trip to Porte Océane.

 

Bronze medal for Noah Garcia in ILCA 6 (Boys)

The young Monegasque Noah Garcia put in a superb performance to come 3rd in the competition just behind Ulysse Raison (YC Cannes) 2nd, the winner being Victor Frere (YC du Calaisis).

 

On the last day, Noah took full advantage of lighter conditions to the previous days, the morning easterly enabling this combative youngster from YCM to make an impressive comeback and grab 3rd place in the overall ranking by winning the last race of the Championship. Worth noting that he was one of only three sailors on the podium to win two races out of the 11 completed, proof of just how competitive this class was at this event.

 

The future is being built today

Congratulations also for a very promising result in ILCA 6 (Girls) by Monegasque Louise Debeaumont who finished 9th. Competing against more experienced sailors she produced a magnificent 2nd place in the 8th race. The young Gabriel Superina came 38th in the same category in the Boys group.

In ILCA 7, a class dominated by Lorenzo Mayer (Saint-Barth YC) who was more than 20 points ahead of his nearest rival, YCM sailors showed remarkable consistency. Bodhi Van Der Linden ranked 6th just ahead of Mathis Duplomb in 8th while Davide Marino finished 15th.

These promising results are the culmination of a year of intensive training for these talented youngsters, supervised by coaches satisfied with their performance: “This week ended on a very positive note. Our young people showed tremendous determination and a fighting spirit against a very high level competition. These results are the fruit of all the work put in and the potential of our team. We are proud of their progress and keen to see what they will achieve next season,” said Paolo Ghione, YCM Competition Teams Manager.