NEYLAND Yacht Club is celebrating having become the only yacht club in west Wales to achieve the prestigious Champion Club status.

It was awarded by the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) in recognition of the club excelling at delivering high level coaching for young people and consistently having junior sailors competing at major events.

The Champion status comes with a range of benefits from the RYA. They include investment, access to coaching resources, support and advice from the High Performance Manager, as well as promoting Neyland as an ideal venue to take young sailors in order to get them started and develop their skills.

Peter Rawsthorne from the club said: “We are really pleased to achieve this status, which is the result of continued hard work by a team of dedicated volunteers.

“We train an average of 40 juniors to RYA levels 1, 2, 3, 4, start and intermediate racing throughout the Spring and Summer.

“The advantages this Champion status brings will help benefit next year’s juniors greatly, building on the success of this year when we have had juniors achieve places in the Welsh and GBR squads.”