Brothers are best of British
TWO teenage brothers from Ashwell are sailing for Great Britain Down Under. Tim and Ben Saxton are part of six youth sailors who are making history this week. For the first time ever, Great Britain s young sailors are competing in the Australian Youth Oly
TWO teenage brothers from Ashwell are sailing for Great Britain Down Under.
Tim and Ben Saxton are part of six youth sailors who are making history this week.
For the first time ever, Great Britain's young sailors are competing in the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in the team racing discipline.
The event is in Sydney and started yesterday (Wednesday) and runs until Sunday. It has drawn more than 1,600 youth athletes to Australia to compete in 16 sports at the venue for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Great Britain is being represented by 112 athletes, including the six sailors who will team race over the two days of sailing competition.
Ben: "I feel truly honoured to be sailing for Great Britain at such a prestigious event."
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Brother Tim added: "This is a great opportunity for our team to gauge our performance and our skills against some of the best athletes of our age."
The other team members are Kate Macgregor from Poole, Imogen Stanley from Oxford, Thame's Claire Lasko and Poole's Matthew Rainback.
All are aged 15 or 16 and the six sailors have a strong team racing record, boasting a gold medal at the 2006 Eric Twiname RYA Youth Team Racing Championship and a silver medal at the same event in 2005.
The British three-boat team will contest a series of short races held on a course adjacent to the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.
All of the six British sailors have been in the Southern Hemisphere for the past three weeks, having recently competed in the 420 World Championships in New Zealand.
John Derbyshire, RYA performance director, said: "I think it's fantastic that these young sailors get the chance to compete internationally at an Olympic venue in the team racing discipline.
