JULY/AUGUST OVERVIEW: five continentals in six weeks
Sail an Optimist and see the world!

In the last six weeks 549 sailors from 80 countries have had the honour to represent their countries at IODA continental championships:

	Africans	N. Americans	Europeans	Asians	Oceanians	Totals
Sailors	44	189	231	63	26	553*
Countries	11	22	41	14	7	94
Own Continent**	8	19	35	13	7	80***

Notes:
* 549 different sailors. 4 sailors attended two events
** Includes South Americans at the North American Championship, Australians at European
*** French Antilles and French Polynesia included the totals for their geographical continents but as France in the grand total.

There could have been more. The Europeans are capped at 240 and all the others are limited by the availability of charter boats and similar factors. However the provision of some 350 charter boats (mandatory except at the Europeans) is the key to the success of these championships.

For the record the medallists were:

Africans North Americans

Open African Open N. American

Alexandre Massard SUI Ahmed Ragab EGY Sean Lee SIN Ivan Aponte PUR

Ahmed Ragab EGY Ashwynn Daniels RSA Victor Diaz VEN Taylor Lutz USA

Ashwynn Daniels RSA Timothy Manley RSA Ivan Aponte PUR Diego Reyes MEX

Girls Open Girls African Girls Open Girls N. Am

Dewi Couvert NED Mariem Zribi TUN Arianna Villena ECU Marissa Lihan USA

Mariem Zribi TUN Merieiue Seddour ALG Stephanie Zimmermann PER Haley Powell BER

Merieiue Seddour ALG Jenny Robertson RSA Maria J. Cucalon ECU Marlena Fauer USA

Team: Algeria Team (Open): Peru

Europeans Asians

Boys Girls Open Girls

Theofanis Kavvas GRE Elia Borrego ESP Sean Lee SIN Griselda Khng SIN

Tadeusz Kubiak POL Ewa Ilska POL Griselda Khng SIN Rufina Tan MAS

Vassilis Papoutsoglou GRE Sara Piasecka POL Chuancheng Zhou CHN Lihua Zhang CHN

Team: China

Oceanians
Photo: Remmelt Staal

Boys Girls

Nicolas Porée FRA Samantha Johnson COK

George Lane NZL Helena Williams COK

Laszlo Horvath FRA

Team: Tahiti

Behind the statistics are some fascinating stories:

Ashwynn Daniels (RSA), silver medallist at the Africans, is the first graduate of the exciting Izivunguvungu Community Project to make a South African team and his medal promises well for the future.
Carl Evans, 14th at last year's Worlds who has just become the youngest 420 world champion on record, was a product of the not dissimilar Waterwise programme in New Zealand.

At the North Americans in a new record fleet of 194 sailors
Iván Aponte from Puerto Rico became the first Caribbean sailor to win the champion
ship, bettering the silver won by Trinidad last year. Scarcely less surprising was the silver medal won by Victor Díaz of Venezuela.

	At the Europeans Fanis Kavvas became the first Greek boy to win the championship in its 23 year history and either Ewa Ilska or Sara Piasecka, both aged just 12, could easily have become the first Polish girl to do so. Seventeen of the 41 nations represented had a sailor in the top 20 of the two fleets
Photo: Jon Fauer	At the Asians Sean Lee of Singapore added the title to his open North American gold and South American silver. This string of medals has never been won before and, under changes to eligibility for IODA events proposed earlier this year, may never be possible again. But it has certainly been a phenomenal achievement and can only stimulate what is already probably the largest Optimist fleet relative to population in the world.
That is the top of the fleet. At the other end only two sailors of the 549 failed to complete their event. There is more to come. The IODA World championship in Uruguay after Christmas is expected to have around 200 entries and this, combined with 194 at the South Americans last Easter, will bring to over 750 the number of different sailors participating in IODA events this year. That's a lot of kids having a lot of fun. IODA wishes to record its thanks to the sponsors, organisers, charterers, judges, race officers and measurers who made it all possible. RESULTS 2007 CALENDAR