Olympic dream for junior sailing champion

Hari Clark started sailing in 2021 and said "it gives you a bit of an adrenaline rush"

A teenage sailor says he is setting his sights on the Olympics, after winning two junior world championship titles in a row.

Hari Clark, 14, won the junior world title in the RS Tera classification at an event on Lake Lipno, Czech Republic, in August.

The schoolboy, from Dunchurch, Warwickshire, said: "There were some Ukrainians that were 16 years old who were there for six weeks practising. They've been in the boat for three or four years and I've only spent about 10 months in the RS Tera, so it feels really good."

He also won the world junior title in the Topper 4.2 classification in 2024 and believes he is the first junior to win world titles in different boats in consecutive years.

Junior world champion Hari said it was "a bit of a dream" to one day compete at the Olympics

Hari's father Richard said getting to the world championships had been "a bit of an endeavour", adding: "It's an overnight ferry and two days driving across Germany, towing the boat and all of the paraphernalia.

"But it was all worth it in the end.

"It's just an amazing feeling, but too quickly it's 'now what?'"

Hari trains at Draycote Water Sailing Club and only started in 2021 but he's already setting his sights on Olympic gold, in the same boat class that Sir Ben Ainslie won with at the 2000 Athens Games.

"I'd like to go into the ILCA class, the Olympic class for men," he said.

"That's a bit of a dream, it would mean everything. [Sailing] is all I do most of the time."

Hari's dad Richard said "he's definitely on the right track" to achieving his Olympic dream

The club's commodore, William Whittaker, said he would not bet against Hari achieving his dream.

"The world's your oyster when you've got a work ethic and professionalism like Hari's got," he added.

Mr Whittaker said the club's junior programme was one of the reasons they won the Royal Yachting Association's Club of the Year award in 2024.

"Hari came to the club as an enthusiastic guy with his mate and he just took to the sport naturally," he added

"We're leading the way in youth and junior activities. Kids come down here and you go out by yourself, and that brings great confidence to them."

Hari admitted that sailing solo could be "a bit scary sometimes" but "it's also an opportunity to go really fast, and it gives you an adrenaline rush".