The first day of the 2019 World Sailing Youth Match Racing World Championship delivered plenty of upsets as Australia returned as the only team undefeated after half of Round Robin 1 was completed.

In tricky lake conditions ranging from 9-18 knots and shifting through 30 degrees, it was always going to be a day where winning the first shift was key to scoring race wins. Early upsets came as top seed, New Zealand’s Egnot-Johnson lost to France in the opening race. Australia took control early, winning their opening three matches again Czech Republic, Russia and America before tighter races against France and New Zealand.

The closest race of the day as anticipated came against the kiwis. Grimes did well in the pre-start to penalise Egnot-Johnson, but a good first beat by the New Zealander’s saw them wipe their penalty out on the port layline. However, a misjudgement on their distance from Grimes saw the Aussie’s climb back to round just behind at the top mark.

Down the run, the Aussies kept it close, rolling the kiwis into the bottom mark and then consolidate around the rest of the track to take the victory. Coming ashore Australia finished on 5-0, only being outscored by Great Britain, who finished on 6-1, having completed two more races.

“We’ve had a g ood opening day here in Yekaterinburg. It was super tricky conditions meaning it was more about your strategy than tactics around the course, but we are really happy to make a solid start to the event and hope to build from here.” Commented mainsail trimmer James Hodgson.

A flurry of five teams then follow on four points from Poland, United States of America, Denmark, Italy and France. However, with only a quarter of the qualifying round completed, it is still very early days in this five-day event. Racing will continue tomorrow with live results here.