Lanzarote continues as the undisputed winter epicenter of world Olympic sailing. After the success of the past iQFOil Games, now it is the turn of the Lanzarote International Regatta, an event that hosts a total of six Olympic classes -49er, 49erFX, 470, iQFOil male and female and Nacra 17- that will bring together more than 350 sailors from Asia, America, Oceania and Europe, including the crème de la crème of the current scene: Olympic champions and medalists, world champions, continental champions and many of the world's Top 3.
The first classes to compete will be the mixed 470, the male 49er and the female 49erFX, with Thursday the 9th for the confirmation of registrations and Friday the 10th as the first day of regattas. iQFOil and Nacra 17 will start the tests in the water on Tuesday, February 14.
49er, 49erFX and 470, first classes on the starting line
The world champions of these three classes, as well as Olympic medalists and champions, are already training in Lanzarote and did not want to miss the opportunity to add hours of sailing in the wide range of conditions offered by this Canary Island.
The fast 49er and 49erFX already know what it is to participate in an Olympic Games, while the mixed 470 class will premiere as an Olympic modality in Paris 2024 and also does so as a class in this third edition of the Lanzarote International Regatta.
More than 30 crews from countries as diverse as Argentina, Italy, France, Sweden, Germany, Israel, Turkey, and of course Spain, will be on the starting line of 470 Mixed. Not missing the last world and European podiums of the class, with the current world champions, the Germans Luise Wanser and Philipp Autenrieth; the world and European runners-up, the Spaniards Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman; and the European champions, the Swedes Anton Dahlberg -silver in Tokyo in the extinct 470 male- and Lovisa Karlsson.
As the 470 class becomes mixed, we also see in its ranks many Olympic medalists who now sail separately by forming new crews with sailors of the opposite sex. Thus, athletes of the stature of the Galician Nico Rodríguez -bronze together with Xammar in Tokyo and who now sails with the Catalan Silvia Mas- or the French Camille Lecointre and Aloïse Retornaz -female bronze in Tokyo who compete here with a new crew member- will also fight for the title in Lanzarote.
On the starting line of the female class 49erFX, we will see a total of 58 sailors with the all-powerful Brazilians Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze, two-time Olympic champions (Rio 2016 and Tokyo), as well as world champions.
The Brazilians are undoubtedly one of the references of the class, however it is a very competitive category in which we will also see the current world champions, the Dutch Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz, who are already in Lanzarote.
Representing Spain, two crews: the one formed by the Galician Patricia Suárez and the Canarian María Cantero, and Alicia Fras and Elena Barrio, from the RCN of Gran Canaria.
Nice fight also expected in the male class 49er, with the presence of crews from 15 countries from four continents among which are the current world Top 3: the Dutch Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken -world champions-, the Spaniards Diego Botín and Florian Trittel -runners-up- and the Croatian brothers Sime and Mihovil Fantela. Remember that Sime already knows what it is to win an Olympic medal thanks to the gold achieved in Rio 2016 in 470 male.
In addition to Botín and Trittel, there will be two more Spanish crews: Pol Marsan and José Manuel Ruiz (CN Arenys de Mar) and Martín Wizner and Antonio Torrado (RCN de Vigo).
The mixed catamaran Nacra 17 debuts in the Lanzarote International Regatta with almost half a hundred sailors from 16 countries. The Canarian Tara Pacheco and Andrés Barrio will be the only Spanish representatives.
The flying windsurf stays in Lanzarote after the success of the iQFOil Games
The only ones who will be in the Lanzarote International Regatta that dispute here not the first but their second event of the season are the iQFOil, the Olympic windsurf class that will debut in Paris 2024. The cream of the crop of this category finished just over a week ago the Lanzarote iQFOil Games and are already prepared for a new assault on their way to the next Olympic Games.
They will be the most numerous classes, with 77 competitors in the male category and 65 in the female category.
Once again the current world champions Sebastian Kölder (GER) and Marta Maggetti (ITA) will compete in Lanzarote, as well as the European champion Nicolas Goyard (FRA) and the current number 1 in the world ranking and winner of the past Lanzarote iQFOil Games, the Andalusian Pilar Lamadrid.
Representing our country in this class will also be Nicole van der Velden, the Majorcans Andrea Torres, Nacho Baltasar and Bernat Tomàs; the current champion of Spain, the Galician Tomás Vieito; and the Alicante native Jorge Aranzueque.
The 49er, 49erFX and 470 tests will take place from February 10 to 13 and the Nacra 17 and iQFOIl, from 14 to 17. It is planned that the 49er and 49erFX classes will complete from Friday, day 10, and until Monday, day 13, a maximum of 12 races plus the definitive Medal Race, a test that scores double and to which only the 10 best classified will access. In the case of the 470 Mixed it will be a maximum of 10 tests and the Medal Race.
The rest of the classes that compete in the Lanzarote International Regatta 2023 -Nacra 17 and iQFOil female and male- will compete from the 14th until Friday, the 17th. In the case of the Nacra 17, the maximum number of tests is 12 plus the Medal Race, while the Olympic flying windsurf could complete up to 16 tests of up to three different formats -marathon, slalom and B/S-, to which the so-called Medal Series would be added.
This international event organized by Marina Rubicón has the support of the Royal Canarian Sailing Federation and is possible thanks to the institutional sponsorships of Promotur Turismo de Canarias with the financing of the REACTEU Fund and Turismo del Cabildo de Lanzarote through the European Sports Destination sports product (managed by SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote), as well as the public collaboration of the Yaiza City Council and the private entities Dinghycoach, Naviera Armas and Cabrera Medina (Cicar).
