Young Derbyshire sailor's success
Callum Lambourn (10) a young sailor from Alvaston in Derby, has achieved his highest success to date by taking first place in the Regatta Fleet at the recent ?End of Season? National championship in his Optimist Class Dinghy. The event is organized by the International Optimist Class Association. Callum who is a member of Swarkestone Sailing Club has become a regular competitor in racing sailor in events including club racing, the Derbyshire Youth Sailing series and Midland Optimist Team. He has achieved good successes before, but at the National event held at Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire, Callum performed consistently throughout the two days of racing over the weekend of 8th & 9th October to beat the other 51 entrants from around the UK. The conditions at Grafham Water were very testing for all of the young sailors with very strong winds on the Saturday being replaced by quite gentle winds on the Sunday. To perform well in both types of wind taking race wins on each day, Callum certainly demonstrated that he has all round sailing skills. His string of results for the six races reads 2nd, 1st, 7th, 2nd, 4th, 1st. Callum has recently been given a new boat because despite his first Optimist, known as Ace, being quite heavy and therefore slow, he was still achieving good results. His parents, Steve and Claire, could see his enthusiasm for racing sailing and decided to invest in the boat which is known as Ace 2. Proud Mum Claire commented, ?We are delighted for Callum that he has achieved this result and we can see that he is really enjoying his sailing. He will now move up to the main fleet next year and we will continue to support him in going to training and racing events over the winter. Perhaps this might start his seven-year-old brother Oliver wanting to sail??. Callum who attends Alvaston Junior Community School is hopeful of winning the Derbyshire Youth Sailing Junior Championship this year in his first full year of competing. There is only one event remaining which is to be held at his home club on Saturday 22nd October. Good luck Callum!
