Two bronze medallists to watch

USA won Laser Radial bronze last week in the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships in Turkey and in Largs at the Laser Radial Worlds. Both sailors Mitchell Kiss and Erika Reineke are ready to challenge for the Radial Youth world titles.

Mitchell Kiss was one of the standout performers at last week’s Laser Radial World Championships in Largs, finishing in third place at just 15 years old. The young American sailor from Holland, Michigan is the top finisher among the large group of boys who are staying on to compete at the Laser Radial Youth Worlds and European championships, and must now rank among the favourites.

“I learned to hike really hard and to just sail and have fun.” Kiss says of what he remembers most about his worlds week in Largs, “ It was very hard with lots of different conditions. I was surprised that I was up there but every race was different.”
“I think this coming week will be harder than last week with many more people on the start line. The standard will be higher with harder starts and things like that.”
“I started in Opti’s from about 10 until I was 12 and then got into Lasers and did the worlds last year in Japan. I made the gold fleet in the Youths but I’ve come on a lot since then working with the Development Team and have really improved. We have really good training camps and I feel like I have improved all around and train mostly Florida and on the East Coast.” And, of what his preferred weather would be this week he suggests:
“I like a lot of change across the race and the regatta, different conditions suit me.”

Coach Ryan Minth says of Kiss: 
“ He is understated with a great attitude and he enjoys the sport. His disposition is one that makes him slow to get frustrated or addled by the conditions and he never quits. He never quits and I have never seen him angry.”
“ I think that third was as good as we could have hoped for with this development team, except for Mitchell who is 15, so I think that to have any of the development squad from the States on the podium is just phenomenal. It is just exceeding expectations and exceeding goals which were set. The Polish sailors were untouchable, they gave a clinic. And some of them have been at it for nearly as long as he has been alive. I think that the results were phenomenal.”
“ He has been privately coached very well, quite a bit. He has a number of boats across the USA and the coach for 2-3 years is a pilot and that has helped him get a good head start to where he is now. And his mother and father are tremendously supportive.”
One of his key skills is being able to put the boat in the right place on the race course at the right time.”
“I think I can have three in the top ten or close to it. I’ll be disappointed if there is not two. Regardless of what conditions come along I have a sailor which can excel no matter what we get. And if it all around then he has a good shot.”

Erika Reineke (USA) has just arrived from Turkey where she finished third in the Girls’ Laser Radial fleet: She recalls:  “It was fun and the competition was really hard. It was very shifty and on and off with the wind a lot. I was a little disappointed in the end because I had results that I could have been first with. But the last day and the last race I did not do so well.”

Heading out on to the Clyde for her first session with her US team compatriots she remarks that her improvements since last year are marked:
“ I did the Women’s Radial Worlds last year and did not do well, but I have improved a lot and am better physically prepared.”
And with both the ISAF Youth gold medallist Michelle Broekhuizen (NED) and silver medallist Heidi Tenkanen here, it is game on once more and the rivalries resume:
“The two other girls are here. I think I know my competition better from having been in Turkey at the Youth Worlds. Their strengths are probably starting and weaknesses staying consistent, which I also have problems with as well so it is pretty even and it should be good to race.”

The strength of Women’s Laser Radial sailors emerging from North America is readilty apparent, with 2005 world champion Paige Railey finishing third last week:

Ryan Minth concludes:
“ The success of Paige Railey and Anna Tunnicliffe in particular has really brought up the standard of Women’s Laser Radial sailing. In the States we are now into our second generation of very, very quality Laser sailors especially out of Florida as a state. The biggest difference is you have one generation which came through which was quite strong and quite able from a continental point of view and had some world level aspirations and now you have the next generation coming up now and they are able to achieve significantly more. Florida is very dominant now.”
 

18/7/2010 12:24