Youth Olympic event to be held in the Cayman Islands

(CNS):  The Cayman Islands Sailing Club has been chosen to host the North American, Central American and Caribbean regional qualifying event for the Youth Olympic Games Sailing Regatta in the Byte C11 Dinghy class during the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010. This event will take place in North Sound 10 tp 15 March 2010, the club has announced. The Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games will involve around 5,000 athletes and officials from the 205 National Olympic Committees.

In addition, there will be an estimated 800 media representatives, 20,000 local and international volunteers, and more than 500,000 spectators. Young athletes, aged between 14 and 18 years, will compete in 26 sports and take part in Culture and Educational Programmes.

The Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games aims to inspire youth around the world to embrace, embody and express the Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect and will create a lasting sports, culture and education legacy for youth from around the world.

The Club is very excited to be the host of such a prestigious sailing event for youth sailors which will be run alongside the highly successful J/22 International Invitational Event and become Race Cayman 2010. The Club anticipates that the regatta will attract up to 100 sailors plus coaches and families to Cayman in March and the Organising Committee is working hard to make sure that the event will be a huge success both for the participants and for the Cayman Islands.

Cayman youth sailors are already gearing up for the Youth Olympic Qualification Regatta event with a number of training programmes well under way. Registered sailors to date include competitors from Canada, Jamaica, Barbados, Bermuda, Netherland Antilles, St Lucia, BVI, USVI, Netherland Antilles, Spain, Dominican Republic and Guatemala in addition to J22 teams from Bahamas, Bermuda, UK and Jamaica.

“We are most grateful to the Cayman IslandsGovernment Ministry of Health, Education, Youth, Sport and Culture along with the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee who have both given their full support to this Youth Olympic Regatta and are major sponsors”, commented Regatta Organiser, Jane Moon. “In addition we thank the corporate sponsors who are supporting us and contributing to this prestigious sailing event.” Sponsorship opportunities are available including title sponsorship and individual or multiple boat sponsorship packages. Volunteer opportunities are also available both on and off the water. More information is available from Jane Moon janemoon@candw.ky.