USVI sailor Ian Barrows wins gold
Published: August 26, 2010
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St. Thomas native Ian Barrows, 15, during the Youth Olympic Games on Wednesday in Singapore.
Because of his recent success at local regattas, St. Thomas native Ian Barrows has made a name for himself in the sailing community. Now the 15-year-old is considered one of the best youth sailors in the world and has the hardware to prove it.
Barrows made history Wednesday when he won a gold medal in the boys Byte CII Class at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. He becomes the first USVI athlete to earn a medal at Youth Olympic Games, a major international sporting event that attracted 14- to 18-year-old athletes from more than 200 countries.
After climbing atop the leader board Tuesday, Barrows took third in the medal race Wednesday to clinch the gold medal.
His final score of 44 points gave him a 16-point margin of victory over silver medalist Florian Haufe of Germany. Netherlands Antilles’ sailor Just Van Aanholt earned a spot on the medals podium after winning Wednesday’s race and edging out Finland’s Kaarle Tapper by four points to take the bronze in the 29-sailor field.
“You’ve just got to stay really focused and not get too caught up in the results and not get too nervous,” Barrows told the International Sailing Federation. “I had really good boat speed on the upwind and tactics so that helped a lot and I was super conservative.”
Singapore’s Darren Choy, the Asian Youth Games champion and a two-time world champion, was in first place overall after Monday’s two races. But Barrows was hot on the chase. In the same two races, Barrows finished right behind Choy as the Antilles School sophomore eventually took the overall lead following Tuesday’s competition.
Choy, who was chosen to light the Youth Olympic Games flame during the opening ceremonies, faded down the stretch as the local favorite finished in seventh place with 78 points.
Barrows was one of eight USVI athletes to compete in Singapore. The Games started Aug. 14 and will wrap up tomorrow as the entire contingent will arrive back on St. Thomas on Sunday afternoon after 26 hours of flying.
V.I. Olympic Committee president Hans Lawaetz heard the good news on Wednesday around 2:30 a.m. when VIOC board member Lyn Reid, who accompanied the USVI contingent to Singapore, wiped tears from her eyes and made the very long-distance call to Lawaetz.
“Lyn called early this morning to tell us that we won a gold medal — it was very exciting,” Lawaetz said. “It was sort of ironic because the day before, I was reading a U.K. web site that had all the medal counts for the Youth Olympics and I thought it would be great if we could get on there. A medal would have been fantastic, but a gold? This is truly special.”
In an email message, Reid described the emotional scene at the podium when the V.I. flag was raised and the V.I. anthem played.
“It was an amazing experience with the whole V.I. team there to support Ian,” she wrote.
Barrows was not the only Virgin Islander in the water at Singapore. Catherine Diaz was in the middle of the girls Byte CII Class pack during most of the competition and finished strong Wednesday. She rounded the first mark in second place and finished 13th in the medal race.
Lara Vadlau of Austria finished first in the girls Byte CII Class with a score of 27 points to win the gold medal. Netherlands’ Daphne van der Vaart took home the silver while Germany’s Constanze Stolz won the bronze.
St. Croix basketball players Amadius Derweer, Kadeem Jones, Javier Martinez and Rasheed Swanston each played on a standout Central High School team last year and made up the USVI 3-on-3 basketball squad. The team finished with a 2-5 record.
Making her third international swimming appearance of the summer, St. Croix native Brigitte Rasmussen swam in several breast stroke events in Singapore while St. Croix Educational Complex student David Walter competed in two 400-meter track races.
Barrows’ gold-medal run was anything but a fluke.
“Out of a strong group of our young V.I. athletes, Ian had the most potential to medal in Singapore,” Lawaetz said.
He took second at the Byte CII World Championship in Cannes, France, in April and Barrows also pulled out a win at the North American and Caribbean Qualifier in the Cayman Islands three weeks prior, which qualified him for the Youth Olympics Games.
Barrows, who has competed in Israel, Turkey and Uruguay during his short sailing career, found out about the Youth Olympics Games two years ago and has been gearing up for the event ever since.
The idea was introduced by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge in 2001 and the IOC approved the creation of a youth version of the Olympic Games three years ago. This was the first summer version of the Games and the IOC paid for all the expenses for the athletes.
Barrows is the younger brother of Thomas Barrows, who took fourth place in the Standard Laser Class at last month’s Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. The older Barrows just wrapped up a stellar college sailing career at Yale University and also finished second at the 2010 Laser North American Championship.
Lawaetz is hopeful both sailors will qualify for the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. Each classification has a different and complex qualification process.
“This is an important step in the right direction for the sailors from the Virgin Islands,” he said. “The federation needs to get together and find out which sailors on which boats can move on. We need to keep these athletes active and not just put something together a few months before the Pan Am Games.”
