Young ready for a scrap in Medemblik

Young is defending champion after becoming the first British woman to win a World Championship in a solo Olympic dinghy class in Vallarta, Mexico last year. But the 30-year-old has endured a tough 2017 after struggling with injury, with her fourth-place at the World Cup event in Hyeres her best performance so far. "I hope I can put in a performance that my support team and I can be proud of," said Young. "I'm not going to be trying to come second, I will be trying to execute the best performance I can and it'll either be good enough to get a result or not. "In reality my season so far has been poor, I haven't been racing at my best, but I will be fighting hard every second of every race and if I string together enough of the right components then I'm sure I can be competitive." The defending champion faces stiff competition in the women's single-handed fleet, including Olympic champion Marit Bouwmeester and current world number one Evi Van Acker. Young knows that such a strong field means past achievements count for nothing and is ready to stick her elbows out. "Winning the Worlds last year adds an extra bit of bite to this year's regatta, but from Monday that's irrelevant," explained Young. "It's Medemblik, it's going to be shifty and choppy, we'll have some light wind races and some windy races. The fleet is competitive so I expect the racing to be tight. "I'll need to keep focussed and be prepared to chip away and scrap for every place."

Sportsbeat 2017