Macclesfield's next sailing prodigy Elliot Hanson secured a World and European silver medal at the Laser Radial World and European Youth Championships on the final day of racing in La Rochelle.
The 17-year-old sealed the world bronze and under-21 European Laser Radial title two weeks ago at the same venue, and mirrored his performance with another impressive outing to take the world and under-19 European silver medal.
In his final youth event and his last time in the Laser Radial class, Hanson produced impressive performances across six days of racing, with numerous top three finishes across the 12 previous races.
The World Championships involved 370 competitors from 44 countries, and the Redesmere Sailing Club star narrowly missed out on the prestigious RYA Volvo Team GBR spot after finishing one point behind Cameron Douglas at April’s RYA Volvo Youth National Championships.
"I’m extremely pleased to finish the event with a silver medal," he said. "It was a tough regatta with light, shifty and unstable winds all week which made it extremely hard to maintain a lead due to a lot of the fleet being much lighter than me.
"The competition was of a very high standard and the French and Italian boats made it extremely competitive all week. I was one of the heaviest in the fleet which made it very challenging with the light winds.
"The week before I was competing in the men’s fleet which was a different story all together.
"The wind was a lot stronger last week – ranging from 20 to 25 knots so it was physically very demanding.
"The racing was a lot more competitive in the top half of the fleet due to everyone being heavier and making the most of the strong breeze."
After competing at La Rochelle two weeks running, he admitted: "Yes I got to know the venue very well so I guess that was a slight advantage, but I’d been racing for an entire week before the competition in very strong winds, so I was completely shattered."
