The 2026 Junior World Championship reached its thrilling conclusion in Medemblik as Italy claimed gold in both the 49er and Nacra 17 fleets, Poland dominated the 49erFX, and three days of tight racing delivered dramatic finishes across every class. Organizers pushed the schedule forward on the final day, with the first warning signal at 10:30 for gold fleet racing.
The 49er gold fleet produced the tightest title fight of the entire regatta, turning into a genuine match race between Italy and Germany across the closing three races. The opening race saw a dead heat at the top, with the same frontrunners shuffling positions, leaving Italy’s Lorenzo Pezzilli and Tobia Torroni (ITA 75) level on points with Germany’s Kjell Haschen and Iven Anton Fromm (GER 182). Race two grew even more intense when the two boats, sailing so closely together, became tangled in traffic at a gate mark. Both capsized while match racing one another, with Pezzilli and Torroni recording their worst counting score and Haschen and Fromm dropping back too, though not as deep as the UFD they had already accumulated. With everything on the line in the final race, Pezzilli and Torroni held their nerve to clinch the 49er Junior World Championship title by three points. Haschen and Fromm, last year’s world champions, finished as vice world champions. With both German sailors now past the Junior Worlds age limit, it marked the end of an era for a partnership that had led from the front for two consecutive years.
The 49erFX title was decided well before racing concluded. Poland’s Ewa Lewandowska and Anna Zwara (POL 771), who had moved into the overall lead the previous day, won race one and backed it up with another victory in race two, building an insurmountable advantage. As they sailed freely downwind afterward, waiting for race three, a pin on one of their shrouds broke. With no way to repair rigging on the water, their racing was over. Had the championship still been in the balance, it would have been a devastating way to lose it, but with the title already secured, Lewandowska and Zwara simply watched the final race as newly crowned world champions. It capped a remarkable week for Lewandowska, already a former 29er world champion and the first ever female winner of the Rolex Young World Sailor of the Year award. Poland’s other entry, training partners Klara Sobczak and Magdalena Skórnóg (POL 280), had a mixed final day but held onto second overall, giving Poland both gold and silver. Japan’s Manase Ichihashi and Rinko Goto (JPN 717) finished strongly with three solid results to claim bronze. Great Britain’s Karrie Clark and Felicity Brellisford (GBR 214) narrowly missed the podium in fourth after an impressive week, with Germany’s Jule Ernst and Lea Adolph (GER 170) just one point further back in fifth.
Italy’s Federico Figlia di Granara and Caterina Sedmak (ITA 46) were crowned Nacra 17 world champions, a result that surprised nobody given their dominance throughout the regatta, stringing together close to all ones and twos across every race. Heavy rain swept in for the closing races, making for a dramatic scene on the water, but Figlia di Granara and Sedmak had already wrapped up the title with a race to spare and could sail without pressure. Figlia di Granara has spent time training alongside Caterina Banti, one half of Italy’s two-time Olympic champion pairing, while her regular teammate Ruggero Tita has been occupied with America’s Cup commitments. Picking up speed secrets from that environment has clearly paid dividends. Sedmak has been the engine of the boat all week, and the pair looked genuinely faster than the rest of the fleet on the foils. Their training partners, Arto Hirsch and Sofia Borgia (ITA 76), backed them up with a strong performance to finish second, well clear of Switzerland’s Andrea Aschieri and Tine Rossel (SUI 370) in third, underscoring just how powerful Italy was in the Nacra 17 fleet this year.
The 49er silver fleet only completed one race on the final day. The wind built well beyond forecasts, capsizes piled up across the fleet, and the race committee made the call to end racing for the silver fleet for the week.
Switzerland’s Henri Rothacher and Noah Strempfer (SUI 434) topped the FX Open fleet from start to finish, holding the lead they seized on day one through to the final race. The United States’ Samantha Gardner and Noah Nyenhuis (USA 49) held on for second, with fellow Swiss crew Jacob Ryu Bruendler and Thierry Stucki (SUI 515) rounding out the podium in third.
