British squad call-up delights Dundee teenager

A Dundee teenager has been called up to the British Youth Performance Sailing Squad.

Tom Mitchell, 16, is a cadet member at the Royal Tay Yacht Club and trains with the RYA Scotland Elite Squad.

The UK Squad Programme is designed to enable the very best British sailors to develop their racing skills so they can succeed on the international stage.

These are exciting times for the Dundee High School pupil, who is no stranger to success.

At last year ’s Topper World Championships in Holland he remarkably won the opening three races in a fleet of more than 200 boats.

Tom, who lives in Broughty Ferry, got hooked on sailing on his fifth birthday and continued to sail a Mirror dinghy until he joined the RTYC cadets aged 10.

Then he began competing on the Scottish circuit a year later, initially in an RS Tera before moving to a Topper Dinghy.

Tom, who competes in a Laser Radial, was thrilled by news of his British squad call-up.

He said: “I’m absolutely delighted. Competition is so much fiercer at youth events than it was last year at junior level. I’m just so pleased to have progressed quickly and hit top form when it mattered at the qualifiers.

“It’s always been my aim to compete on the highest stage possible and GBR Youth Squad offers me a fantastic opportunity to achieve this.”

The call-up caps a remarkable journey for the young yachtsman, who last year won the Scottish Sailingfast Topper Traveller Series and Scottish Topper Championship and topped the GBR Topper Class National Series rankings.

Tom Mitchell, a cadet member at the Royal Tay Yacht Club, has been named in British Youth Performance Squad.