Welwyn Garden City Sailor wins World Title

A Hertforshire-born sailor this week secured the Ladies’ World Title at the 420 World Championships, held in Valencia, Spain.

Annabel Cattermole, a seventeen year old who learned how to sail with Welwyn Garden City Sailing Club at Stanborough Park, and her crew Bryony Bennett-Lloyd from Norwich, passed the finish line at the top of the leader board on Tuesday, 30thJuly.

The pair needed a top-ten placing to win the overall championship and sealed the world title with a fourth place finish in the final race.

Talking about her win to the Royal Yachting Association (RYA), Annabel said: “It feels incredible; I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet but I think it will get there eventually – it just doesn’t feel quite real that we have actually won and are World Championships.”

The World Title follows on from an already successful year for Annabel, who’s notched up five titles since becoming the first British boat to qualify for the Gold Fleet at the 2012 World Championships.

Annabel started sailing when she was eight, completing the Stage 1 course during her summer holidays and progressed with Welwyn Garden City Sailing Club.

Speaking on behalf of Welwyn Garden City Sailing Club, Commodore Peter Thornely, said, “Annabel was around 12 or 13 when she joined the club in 2008. She told us she wanted to train with the RYA youth squad, and we could see straight away she was very talented. Since then Annabel has competed at Topper and 420 events around the country and abroad under the Welwyn Garden City Sailing Club name. We have watched her progress with interest and are extremely proud that she and her crew, Bryony Bennett-Lloyd, are now Ladies 420 World Champions.”

Staff at Stanborough Park have also passed their congratulations to Annabel. Sarah Elliott, General Manager, said: “The watersports team at Stanborough are incredibly proud of Annabel’s achievements. Stanborough is a great place to learn to sail and Annabel proves that solid foundations can lead to great success.”

“Annabel also learned to kayak on a course at Stanborough but it was clear that sailing was where her real passion lies! We hope that Annabel (and Bryony’s) fantastic World achievements will inspire more children to take up a watersport.”

The team at Stanborough Park have over 40 years’ experience of conducting watersports activities. They deliver RYA courses in sailing and windsurfing for all ages and abilities together with British Canoe Union (BCU) courses in canoeing and kayaking.

Find out more about Watersports at Stanborough Park here.

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For more information please contact Sarah Elliott at Stanborough Park, S.Elliott@finesseleisure.com or 01707 276 276

Get the full results of the 420 World Championships here.