England’s ‘Young Lions’ put in a fine performance during the World Junior and Youth Shore Angling Championships which were staged at Castellefels, situated just to the south of Barcelona along the Spanish Coastline.
Once again the lack of communication between the organisers and competitors proved a problem, but on this occasion this was quickly forgotten as the bait provided and the fishing was outstanding despite the somewhat adverse weather conditions.
The main species encountered were golden grey mullet up to 5lb which is well over the British record, along with bass and numerous small Mediterranean species. In fact, during the whole championship there was not one blank in both the junior and youth categories which is almost unheard of during International Sea angling events.
The England Youth team, comprising of Paul Lingham, Neil Hargreaves, Ollie Hopkins, Scott Hesling and Robbie Taylor who were managed by Alan Gilbert finished in 2nd position on day 1, 3rd position on day 2, 2nd position of day 3 and 5th position on day 4 which gave them 12 penalty points which was sufficient for them to secure the silver team medal. Spain won the event with 5 penalty points while Holland came third with 15 penalty points. England’s top individual in the Youth section was Robbie Taylor from Dover who finished in 8th position.
The England Junior Team, comprising of Jamie Morgan, Callum Graham, Steven Rathbone, Daniel Warman and Sam Rogers were under the watchful eye of two former world champions: Steve Allmark & Chris Clark. They were on fire from the very onset of the championship; they won the official practice match by a canter. They then went on to come 1st on day 1, 1st on day2, 3rd on day 3 and 2nd on day 4 to finish with 7 penalty points to collect the silver team medal, the event was won by Spain with 6 penalty points while France came third some nine points further adrift with 16 penalty points, a huge margin.
To put the icing on the cake 15-year-old Steven Rathbone from West Bay collected the Individual gold medal, a tremendous achievement as he was fishing his first ever world event. Sixteen-year-old Jamie Morgan collected the individual silver medal and just to round off an excellent championship 15-year-old Daniel Warman from Deal came 4th in the individual classification.
The England team was the youngest attending, they included two13-year-olds which can only be good for the future.
The England teams would like to thank Fox International, their main sponsors for supplying top of the range rods to give them that cutting edge along with other accessories, equipment and clothing.
