By BVI Royal Yacht Club
BVI’s Laser Radial sailor, Daniel Petrovic placed 35th at the 2015 ISAF Youth Worlds held in Langkawi, Malaysia, Dec 27, 2015 – Jan 3, 2016. Photo ©: Daniel Smith / World Sailing
Sailing a consistent nine race series in the boy’s Laser Radial class, Petrovic was pleased with his achievement. “It has been an amazing experience and I am really proud to have been here representing the BVI. I feel like I have learned a lot and improved through the championship and I hope that I have done a little bit to help put the BVI on the map, ” he said.
The ISAF Youth Worlds are the pinnacle event in the international youth sailing calendar and with just one representative per nation in each class it is a major achievement to be selected. “It’s like the Olympics with one sailor per nation and that’s why we’re all here, to represent our county.” commented Petrovic.
Petrovic was selected to receive a scholarship from the International Sailing Federation during a training clinic in July 2015 and since then has been training hard to do his country proud. After almost two days of travelling he arrived in Langkawi, an archiplelago off the northwest coast of Malaysia, nervous but excited. “There were a lot of nerves on day one but once I got into the event there was a lot of excitement and I just wanted to do my best.” he told reporters in Malaysia.
The event included nine races, two per day with one race on the final day. True to form at so many sailing regattas, the Langkawi weather threw up plenty of surprises and expectations of a light wind regatta were quickly set aside. Winds gusting over 20 knots on top of the shifty conditions typical of the Kuah Bay area challenged all the young athletes over the first three days before settling into lighter conditions for the final days.
Posting consistent results throughout the week, Petrovic had his best scores in the penultimate race when he posted a ninth place. “I’m stoked to finally break into the top ten!” he said. Rounding out the championship with a 27th he just edged out Antigua’s Jules Mitchel to finish the third best placed sailor from the region behind Puerto Rico and the Cayman Islands.
Sailing a Laser Radial in the Boy’s One Person Dinghy event, Petrovic raced in the biggest fleet of the championship with a total of 68 competitors. In total, 425 competitors from 76 nations made 2015 a record breaking edition of the championships.
