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The Gazprom Youth Sailing Challenge has announced that after months of trials, promising young Russian sailor, Viatcheslav Martynov, will be helming Swan 60 Tsaar Peter at the forthcoming 2014 Gazprom Swan 60 World Championship. Final selection was made by their Whitbread Round the World Race and Olympic Games veteran coach, Sergey Borodinov. “There will be a lot of young Russian talent onboard Tsaar Peter in Palma next week however, Viatcheslav a student in Saint Petersburg, has really impressed us recently going into this important event and I am confident he will deliver under pressure due to his experience within match racing. The graduation of some youth sailors to race with the current Gazprom Swan 60 World Champions onboard Swan 60 Bronenosec has allowed further opportunity for yet more youngsters to race at Copa del Rey MAPFRE”.

Born in 1993, Viatcheslav took to the water at 8 years old in his Optimist dinghy and a position in the Russian Optimist National Team followed. Viatcheslav took a step up into Laser 4.7 class racing in the Youth National Team and graduated into the Laser Radial racing in the European and World Championships. For the last 3 years Viatcheslav has focused his attention on match racing winning the Russian championship last month and he is now keen to broaden his experience on the big boat scene.

This is the first initiative of its kind to be developed in Russia, providing youngsters with the ability to live their global yacht racing dreams. After their initial season of Swan 60 yacht racing the youths will be guided by Saint Petersburg Yacht Club in order that they all achieve their sporting ambitions as part of a Russian or international team.