RYA PRESS RELEASE
24 November 2009
CALLUM CAPS YEAR TO REMEMBER WITH RYA AWARD
Callum Airlie, from Gordon in the Scottish Borders will soon receive one of youth sailing’s most prestigious awards, the RYA Scottish Young Sailor of the Year Award 2009, in recognition of his outstanding achievements in junior sailing throughout the year.
Callum’s crowning success in a tremendous year was to win the Optimist National Championships in August, the first Scot to ever win this National title. He won the title at Largs, sailing in a 352 strong fleet.
Callum, 14, sails at East Lothian Yacht Club and at St Mary’s Loch Sailing Club. His training is supported by RYA Scotland and the East of Scotland Institute of Sport. This training helped Callum to land one of junior sailing’s most fiercely contested titles.
It is a title which has also been won by triple Olympic gold medal winner Ben Ainslie – although Callum has outdone the great Olympian by being a year younger than when Ainslie took the title in 1992. Callum enjoyed meeting Ben Ainslie at Largs on the second last day of the Championship, and this inspired him to outclass the opposition on the final day of the Championship to overtake his opponents and seize the title.
Callum had laid the groundwork for his victory with an intensive winter training program in 2008/09 with the RYA GBR and RYA Scottish Optimist Squads. This helped him make a big jump on his performance the previous year, and Callum showed what he had learned by taking a silver medal at the Optimist Inland Championships, the first of the year’s major Championships. This silver served as inspiration to Callum who worked tirelessly on improving, and managed to go one better by becoming Optimist National Champion in August. He rounded off the year by receiving the prestigious Dobson Cup from another Olympic gold medallist, Paul Goodison, and now Callum wants to follow the path adopted by Paul and Ben, and sail for Great Britain in the Olympics.
On Saturday 9th January at the Tullet Prebon 2010 London International Boat Show, Callum will join 12 other RYA Regional Award winners from all over the UK for the eagerly anticipated awards ceremony at which they will receive their trophy.
Rod Carr, OBE, Chief Executive, RYA says: “Winning an RYA Regional Young Sailor of the Year Award is a fantastic achievement. Sailing and Powerboating are great sports for young people which are both mentally and physically challenging. The Young Sailor of the Year award highlights just how many youngsters are out enjoying the sport and achieving great things, and I am delighted that this is recognised through the award.”
Nick Scott, High Performance Manager at RYA Scotland, said, “We’re all very proud of Callum’s exceptional achievement. It is one which will inspire many more young Scottish sailors to aspire to the very top. Callum has climbed to the peak of junior sailing, and I am sure we will see others follow his lead.”
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Attached photograph;
Callum on his way to victory at the Nationals. Photo courtesy of Alan Henderson/ www.fotoboat.com