YOUNG Llandenny sailor Hannah Tilley is gearing up for the biggest couple of weeks of her short competitive career as she prepares to represent Great Britain in two World Championship events in Brazil.

The 15-year-old Haberdashers' Monmouth schoolgirl flew to South America on Monday ahead of the 2009 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championships, where she will represent RYA Volvo Team GBR in the Laser Radial class before switching to the slightly smaller Laser 4.7 for the 2009 Laser 4.7 World Championships a week later.

Both Championship events are being staged in Buzios, 100 miles north of Rio with the ISAF Youth Worlds getting underway this very day.

But the level-headed Tilley, who won selection for the ISAF Youth Worlds following her Laser Radial class victory at the RYA Volvo Youth National Championships and Trials in April, was keeping her feet firmly on the ground ahead of the trip and told the Chronicle, "I am the youngest member of the British team going to the ISAF Youth Worlds so for me the event is just all about getting as much as I can out of the experience, competing against foreign sailors and just seeing what it is all about at international level.

"The Youth Nationals were my first event in the Radial and I wasn't aiming for a good result but I was very, very happy to win and then be selected for the ISAF Youth Worlds. It was something I was aiming for for a few years' time so it's come a bit fast but it will be a fantastic experience."

Around 280 of the World's top Olympic hopefuls of the future will converge on Buzios for the 10-day ISAF Youth Worlds regatta with multiple Olympic gold medallists Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb among the many high-profile Brits who have represented their country at the prestigious Under 19 event.

Cardiff Bay YC's Tilley, who started sailing at Llandegfedd SC in 2001 and is still a member of the club, makes up part of a 10-strong British ISAF Youth Worlds contingent.

RYA Youth Racing Manager Duncan Truswell, one of three RYA support staff accompanying the sailors to Buzios, said,

"The ISAF Youth Worlds is quite a different event to what the sailors are used to because it's delivered in a multiclass Olympic format on a very large scale.

"Most importantly is that we go there, enjoy it and learn as much as we can from the experience and there is no better regatta for young sailors to learn at really.

"We have got some very young sailors who will be going for the experience and some sailors going very much for the outcome.

"It is our aim to provide a team environment which we hope will be the right setting for all the sailors to achieve whatever it is they are capable of."