Girl Power at the Renaissance Re Junior Gold Cup
By Laurie Fullerton
This year, the RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup is hosting four international girls from Holland, Britain, Brazil and Poland. The girls will face off against a tough playing field of local and international Opti sailors starting this Thursday. Talented and eager, they all agreed that they do enjoy the camaraderie of other girls in the sport but ‘don’t mind’ racing against boys, either.
Hamilton, Bermuda, Oct 9, 2013- With the RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup now in its 11th year, the event has grown to include more girls both locally and internationally at this highest level of competition. By being invited from overseas, a group of young girls get the opportunity to both meet each other and to compete against the local Bermuda girls as well.
The result is certainly the beginning of many life long friendships but also a lot of young females have managed to do very well at the Junior Gold Cup. The best result for girls was 2011 when four females graced the top eight finishers including a 2nd and a 3rd. To date, there has not yet been a girl on the podium in first place– not yet, at least.
This year, the RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup is hosting four international girls from Holland, Britain, Brazil and Poland. The girls will face off against a tough playing field of local and international Opti sailors starting this Thursday. Talented and eager, they all agreed that they do enjoy the camaraderie of other girls in the sport but ‘don’t mind’ racing against boys, either.
Young Champions gather for Renaissance Re Jr. Gold Cup
By Laurie Fullerton
Hamilton, Bermuda, Oct 2, 2013- A fall classic returns to Bermuda’s shores on Oct. 10-13 with the 11th annual RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup - a championship of champion’s event for the world’s top Optimist dinghy sailors. With 13 international champions from 17 countries overall, the world’s best will compete in a regatta that includes some 40 Bermudians ranging in age from nine to 15.
The RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup, held at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club ,not only offers many young Bermudians their first taste of international competition, this event is clearly emerging as fertile ground for future world-class sailors. Because it coincides with the Argo Group Gold Cup – the penultimate race on the World Match Racing Tour – the youngsters meet, watch and learn from the best match racing sailors competing today. And many are in fact alumni of past Junior Gold Cup’s including 2012 Gold Cup winner Taylor Canfield of the US Virgin Islands who is returning this year to defend his title.
This event is key to Bermuda’s sailors in that it gives them international experience. They are training in excellent sailing conditions all year round together with experienced, qualified coaches, but lack an extensive and varied group of other Optimist sailors to race against. It is always a huge learning curve for a young sailor to have the chance to line up against some top-level sailors from other nations.
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