Savannah Siew and Kimberly Lim on their way to winning the silver at the 420 World Championships. (Photo 1 © Jose Jordan. Courtesy of SingaporeSailing)
Valencia, Spain, Tuesday, July 30, 2013 – Singapore’s 420 pair, Kimberly Lim and Savannah Siew, won the silver medal at the 420 World and Ladies World Championships 2013.
Held from July 22 to 30, this year’s edition is the girls’ second appearance at the championships, and they did well to secure the second out of 77 teams in the ladies’ fleet.
Last year, this young team finished fourth overall, and they also won the William Sanchez Trophy for the top under-16 team.
It has been a long journey for the duo to get to this point. Prior to the 420 Worlds, the girls had several training camps and took part in key European events in Europe for the past four weeks. At the 2013 ISAF Youth Worlds held in Limassol, Cyprus, they narrowly missed out on a podium finish. They were placed fourth after being in podium position for most of the Championships.
The 420 Worlds presented the pair with plenty of challenges – fierce competition from the international sailors, as well as trying wind conditions that tested the sailors’ mental and physical toughness.
All 12 races were tough, with strong teams vying hard for a podium finish. The last race in particular was especially nail-biting as the outcome would determine the medal positions amongst the top six teams who were all close in terms of points. Kimberly and Savannah sailed a breathtaking finale to take an emphatic race win, and with a 6–1 scoreline for the regatta’s final two races, they edged into silver position.
The huge jump in ranks put them ahead of Italy’s Sara Scotto Di Venttimo and Vittoria Barbiero, as well as last year’s silver medallists from Chile, Nadja Horwitz and Carmina Malsch, who had been hogging the top three spots on the leaderboard for the past few days.
The pair were led by double-handed youth coach Jackson Ho. “The inconsistency of the results amongst all the competitors throughout the championships demonstrated the high level of competition, with sailors tested by the wide range of sailing conditions. We are very happy to have finally made the podium after so many close attempts.
“Going into the last race in fifth position, the girls remained focused and gave their best, and they definitely deserve this win. This achievement will surely spur the rest of the team to continue working hard for future events.”
The Singapore team in Valencia consisted mainly of new youth sailors. The pairing of Elisa Yukie Yokoyama and Jazlene Ong finished 17th out of 77 while the remaining girls pairing of Jillian Lee and Samantha Neubronner were 24th.
The boys pairing of Jonathan Yeo and Tan Jen-E were 27th out of 100 entries in the open fleet while the other boys pair of Andrew Tang and Edward Lim were 31st out of 110 entries in the Open Fleet.
All the teams qualified for the gold fleet (top half of the field) following the qualification series.
The 420 is a key pathway class worldwide for youth sailors before they go into the bigger Olympic 470 class. Singapore clinched first and third positions in last year’s edition, and some of those sailors have since moved onto Olympic classes. Kimberly and Savannah’s second position puts them firmly on track for the Olympics.
“Fantastic performance from our 420 sailors! They have steadily progressed through the junior and youth systems and this caps a fine month of performances by the teams going out to the major world and continental events this summer,” said Rupert Ong, the vice-president of Singapore Sailing Federation overseeing High Performance.
“The performances also reflect the strong coaching development in place, as our 420 team coach, Jackson Ho, has been developed over the past years and has only taken on this coaching position late last year in SSF’s ongoing coach rotation and succession. He has big shoes to fill, but has already worked with his charges to deliver consistent all round performances.”
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