WINDSURFING - A YOUNG windsurfer from Clevedon is riding a crest of a wave after landing a bronze medal at the IWA Junior, Youth and Masters Windsurfing World Championships.

WINDSURFING - A YOUNG windsurfer from Clevedon is riding a crest of a wave after landing a bronze medal at the IWA Junior, Youth and Masters Windsurfing World Championships.

Ali Masters has been one of the stars of the show at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) as he claimed third place in a hotly-contested Raceboard Youth Worlds' competition.

It was a superb result for the 17-year-old as 350 windsurfers from 27 different countries descended on WPNSA for the six-day RYA racing events-run championships to compete in the IWA Worlds.

RYA Volvo Youth Squad sailor Ali has had a busy summer of action, coming sixth at both the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF Youth World Championships in Brazil and the RS:X Youth Worlds in Turkey last month.

Next week he will remain in Weymouth for the senior RS:X World Championships, which welcomes the cream of the Olympic Classes windsurfing scene to the Dorset coast.

In a division dominated by the France at WPNSA, Ali was the only non-French sailor to seal a place in the Raceboard Youth top five.

Meanwhile Noelle Finch, also from Clevedon, finished an impressive fifth in the Bic Techno Under -5 girls' class. Finch showed great determination to recover from a horrible first day, when she scored 12 and 17, to claw her way back up the rankings and secure a top five place.

The IWA Junior, Youth and Masters Worlds were the first of three back-to-back world-class events run by the RYA, supported by UK Sport, hosted at WPNSA over the next month with the RS:X World Championships taking place next week and the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta from September 14 to 19.

Visit www.ryaracingevents.org for full results and details of the IWA Junior, Youth and Masters Worlds.