Yachting: Kiwi sailors selected for world champs

Nine sailors have been named to represent New Zealand at the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships in Dublin Bay, Ireland from July 12-21.

Four - Tomer Simhony, Ellie Copeland, Gemma Jones and Alex Munro - have previous world championships experience after competing in Zadar, Croatia last year.

Simhony and Copeland were the top New Zealanders at last year's event, finishing fifth in the Open Multihull.

This year they have decided to divide and conquer, each helming their own crew: Ellie in the Female 420 and Tomer remaining in the multihull.

All nine sailors have proved to a selection panel they are amongst New Zealand's best youth sailors in their divisions.

29er duo Munro and Trent Rippey and Laser Radial representative Andrew McKenzie with training partner Matthew Kempkers have just finished competing at the RYA Youth National Championships.

McKenzie dominated this event and won the Laser Radial division. Kempkers was not far behind for a fifth place finish, and Munro and Rippey finished seventh in the 72 boat 29er fleet.

Team: Andrew McKenzie (male laser radial), Jayvee Buchanan and Matthew Morrison (male 420), Ellie Copeland and Erica Dawson (female 420), Tomer Simhony and Gemma Jones (open multihull), Alex Munro and Trent Rippey (29er)