Devin Goonewardena world’s youth sailing champ

Richard Dwight

In the GP - 14 youth event of the Sailing World Championships held last week at Abersoch, Wales, where the youth as helm had to be under 21 years, with there being no age restriction applying for the crew - the 16 year old youth, Devin Goonewardena, a student from Stafford International as helm and Jeremy Bolling as crew, did extremely well to win the race and, for Devin to be acclaimed world’s youth sailing champion.

The prestigious 2008 World Championship was hosted by the International GP Fourteen Association and based at the South Caernarvanshire Yacht Club. The regatta which comprised eight races were sailed in the Irish Channel off the Welsh Coast in chilly conditions among six-foot waves and winds gusting at times to 20 knots.

Goonewardena and Bolling completed all their races, some of which were concurrently run-without a single capsize.

They gave a good account of themselves while sailing against the world’s most experienced GP sailors in the week long regatta. It must have been to them, a rewarding as well as a satisfying experience to finish fourth overall in the 38 - boat silver fleet race.

This splendid performance of both Devin and Jeremy has done much to keep in focus and enhance the reputation of sailing at the Ceylon Motor Yacht Club, Bolgoda and in the country at large.

It must be mentioned that Devin Goonewardena is also Sri Lanka’s GP - 14 National Champion, having previously been an outstanding sailer in the Optimist Class.

He was the winner of gold in both the individual and the team events of the 2005 South Asian yachting regatta in Karachi and the team event of the 2007 South Asian Yachting Regatta.

Jeremy Bolling has been a seasoned campaigner, his interest in the sport has been well sustained through the years. He has through it all won many local championships and the added advantage of having sailed abroad on quite a few occasions.

According to yachting sources, the performance of the Goonewardena - Bolling duo at the recent GP-14 Worlds was even more creditable given that they were unable to get any sea - sailing practice in Sri Lanka in the run up to the world championship owing to the rough seas off the west coast of Sri Lanka due to the prevailing Southwest monsoon.