DORCHESTER’S Jack Cookson took to the water in Canada for this year’s Laser Radial Youth World Championships.

Held in Kingston, Ontario, the 18-year-old sailor was joined by more than 140 of the world’s best youth Laser sailors.

Cookson, a member of Castle Cove Sailing Club, started the event slowly in the qualifying series, battling against shifting wind conditions and carrying a cold throughout the championships.

But the Dorchester teenager returned home from the major event placed seventh overall.

This great result follows on from his success at the Youth European Championships where he claimed a gold medal.

He said: “At the end of the first four qualifier days, I was lying in 24th place and knew that the final two days of sailing would be a real challenge to achieve my goal of a top 10 place.”

In the first day of gold fleet racing, three races were held with Cookson achieving a 12th, fifth and an eighth place, pushing him up the leaderboard to seventh overall.

He continued: “With the final day to go, I felt I could achieve a top-five place, however, the weather was against us with wind speeds of 30 knots, so racing was cancelled which meant a final position overall of seventh.”

Cookson now moves up to the men’s Olympic class of Laser Standard and hopes to build on his success in the Radial.

He will be doing all of this while embarking on the first year of his business degree at Southampton University.