Chloe Turner has done it again. Less than a month after claiming bronze at the ILCA 6 Youth European Championships in Greece, the 17-year-old Aucklander stepped onto the podium again at the ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, finishing third in a 122-boat fleet drawn from 35 nations.
Turner sealed the result with two top-five finishes across her final three gold fleet races, edging Czechia's Beata Dokoupilova for the bronze spot. Greece's Hermionie Ghicas took the world title, Ireland's Sienna Wright silver. Turner was also the youngest sailor inside the top nine.
Three weeks. Two medals. Two completely different regattas.
"I'm stoked to medal at back-to-back events, especially as the venues offered completely different sailing conditions," Turner said. "Greece was very light and variable, while this week we had cold and shifty conditions. To be consistent at both events shows that I'm making gains, which is really encouraging."
The consistency is the point. Racing in New Zealand, she says, doesn't always reveal how much ground she's covering. "It's when you go overseas and compete against the big fleets that you really see the progress. It's great to see that the hard work back in New Zealand is starting to pay off."
Turner has been building her programme alongside the wider Kiwi ILCA 6 squad under former Olympian Sara Winther, with a focus on race management, starts, strategy and boat-on-boat tactics. Her personal coach is Paris 2024 Olympian and former ILCA 7 world champion Tom Saunders, and video analysis of major regattas has become a regular part of her preparation.
She stepped up to the under-19 fleet this season after winning the ILCA 6 under-17 women's world title in Los Angeles last summer. Aarhus confirms she is already competing at the sharp end of the older age group.
At the front of the fleet, Ghicas had entered the final day holding just a one-point lead over Wright, then won all three gold fleet races to put the title beyond doubt. Shifting conditions throughout the week tested the entire fleet across a wide range of wind strengths, which perhaps explains how a 17-year-old from Auckland found her edge.
Yachting New Zealand High Performance Athlete Development Manager Geoff Woolley was unequivocal. "This result is a significant achievement in an incredibly tough event and reflects not only Chloe's hard work but the huge support and commitment from her family," he said. "What makes it even more exciting is that Chloe still has another year of youth sailing ahead of her, and we're looking forward to continuing to work closely with her and the ILCA 6 squad as we build towards the Youth World Championships in Vilamoura later this year."
In the boys' fleet, Tom Pilkington led the New Zealand contingent with a 16th-place finish after making the gold fleet, ahead of Arran Begic in 41st and Toby Dunn in 64th. Isaac Gaites finished 100th, Thomas Linklater 127th, George Turner 170th, and Lukas Johnson 175th. Across both fleets, 429 young sailors from 45 nations raced in Aarhus.
