At the Junior World Championship, which is underway in Russia, St. Petersburg (qualification phase from 27th to 29th July and final phase from 30th July to 2nd August) with almost 80 crews from 19 nations, the first two grants of 900,00 € each were given by Mr. Yalcin Gurkan, 470 International Management Committee Secretary, to Hanna Saari and Mikaela Wulff (FIN) and to Adi Gilboa and Kanonich Ravid (ISR) during the opening ceremony held yesterday. The Israelian team shows an amazingly 15 years old crew.

Yalcin Gurkan commenting the grants given, says: `It is matter of fact that young people are the future of almost everything and thus of our sports. Furthermore women are taking more and more space and visibility in almost in every sport and, according to IOC direction, in our sport women shall increase their participation. This grant is only one of the programmes that the 470 Internationale is developing in order to help the young sailors to join the 470 Family and to enjoy the competitions and friendships from all over the world.`

For any information on the Junior Support Programmes of the 470 Internationale check the web page http://www.470.org; the Junior World Championship in Russia can be followed at http://www.470.org, http://www.spps.ru/470/index.html, as well as – for live web casting of the races – at http://iracing.ru/ and http://www.geofix.c-map.ru/VolgaCup.aspx

Source: 470 Internationale - Darren Dunkley Smith