Two Lothian teenagers, who only joined forces last June to race a
double-handed 420 boat, won the 420 RYA Youth National Championships in
Hayling Island on England's south coast in April.
For 16 year olds, Peter Irwin, from Linlithgow, and Balerno's David Kohler, the week-long event was their first race since returning from the World Championships in Auckland this January.
This is a big thing for us because we were racing against some of the people in the British team who were quite far ahead of us at the Worlds and we managed to beat them this time, said Kohler. It was pretty pleasing to have improved so much since January and it was a far better result than my 28th place in this event last year.
The pair started their sailing careers on the calm waters of Linlithgow Loch, in single-handed toppers. Last summer they graduated to the bigger two man boat. Shortly after joining forces they were selected for the UK National (GBR) Youth Sailing squad, which provides coaching sessions with the top UK youth and Olympic coaches. Around the same time they were invited to join the East of Scotland Institute of Sport.
Whilst the pair both admit their World Championships opened their eyes to the need to be physically fitter, Hayling Island, with its ever changing winds, provided its own psychological test.
When we came back from the Worlds we had a big review process through ESIS and the RYA Scottish squad, said Kohler.
We really learned from the event and changed a lot of stuff. The way we train has got lot more structure. For fitness training we use heart rate monitors and we send in the data every month to make sure we are keeping to the right levels and peaking for the events. We do a lot more cardio work and also Strength & Conditioning at the ESIS gym.
Next on the horizon are two qualifying events for the European Championships in Turkey and the Junior Europeans in Holland.
Our goal is to qualify and we have to be the top two to do it, added Kohler.