49th Trofeo Princesa Sofía Iberostar Entry Laden With Rio Olympic Medallists
Trofeo Princesa Sofía Iberostar regatta will be the biggest and most international ever, drawing 870 boats and 1215 sailors from 62 different nations to the increasingly popular event which traditionally lifts the curtain on the European competition season for the Olympic classes.
With two years now until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics the 49th Trofeo Princesa Sofía Iberostar regatta is an almost essential fixture. No fewer than 17 sailing medallists who stood on the Olympic podium in Rio in 2016 will compete against dozens of previous Olympic medallists and World and European Champions. But the event is a fascinating melting pot where young talent can emerge and impress at one of their first big stage Olympic multi class events.
Who’s Who? More than 20 Rio Medallists…..
In the Men’s 470 Class Miami winners Patience and Chris Grube will be up against Australia’s. 2017 world champions and 2016 Olympic silver medallists Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan who won here two years ago and Rio bronze medallists Greece’s Mantis Panagiotis and Pavlos Kagialis.
Rio gold medal winning helm in the 470 fleet Hannah Mills competes with Eilidh McIntyre with whom she finished runner up at the World Championship. Similarly France’s Camille Lecointre who sails now with Aloise Retornaz won Olympic bronze in Rio.
British crews have achieved something of a domination in the 49er class even if. medals have proven elusive at recent Olympics. Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Olympic 470 silver medal winning crew Stu Bithell are current world champions and won gold at the Sailing World Cup Miami in January. Germany’s Olympic bronze medal winner Thomas Ploessel now races in a new partnership with Justus Schmidt. The young Spanish duo Diego Botin and Iago L. Marra finished runners up in Miami and were second here last year behind the British winners James Peters and Fynn Sterrit who sadly miss the chance to repeat their success because of a last minute injury to crew Sterrit.
In 49er FX the New Zealanders Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech and the Danish duo Jena Mai Hansen and Katja Steen Salskov-Iversen start among the favourites. Maloney and Meech won Olympic silver in Rio while Hansen and Salskov-Iverson hold Olympic bronze from 2016 and lifted the world champions title in 2017.
The Finn class is perhaps one of the hardest to call. GBR’s recently crowned European Champion Ed Wright is up against Rio gold and silver medal winners Giles Scott (GBR) and Caleb Paine (USA) along with the Swede Max Salminen who is world champion.
The Laser fleet is the biggest at the regatta with 183 registered boats and all three Rio medallists are racing here. Outstanding favourite appears to be Tom Burton, gold winner in Rio 2016, world championship runner up and the class winner at the Sailing World Cup Miami. Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic took silver in Rio and New Zealand’s 2016 bronze medallist Sam Meech won the first of the 2018 Sailing World Cup events in Japan.
The Laser Radial class is 117 strong with the Dutch 2016 gold medallist Marit Bouwmeester who took silver in London racing her first major regatta of this year. She holds the aces as World and European Champion. Denmark’s Anne Marie Rindom is the bronze medallist in Rio, winner of the first regatta of the 2018 Sailing World Cup and finished third here when she last raced in 2016. Great Britain’s Alison Young, the 2016 world champion, comfortably triumphed at the Sailing World Cup regatta in January.
In the Nacra 17 the introduction of foils has opened up the class again forcing a new style of sailing to be learned. Argentines Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza, the Olympic champions in Rio 2016 are on that learning curve and have yet to replicate their Rio success on foils. World Champions are GBR’s Ben Saxton and Nicola Boniface, the first world title winners on foils, who were sixth here last year. The Nacra 17 also features Austria’s bronze medallists Thomas Zajac and Barbara Matz while Spain’s Fernando Fernando Echávarri and Tara Pacheco are 2017 world championship runners up.
The men’s boards are the only class in which none of the medallists of the last Olympic Games are present at the 49th Trofeo Princesa Sofía Iberostar. Poland completed the double last year when Pawel Tarnowski won the Men’s RS:X, following up from his second in 2016. World Champion Bing Le leads a strong Chinese contingent as does Women’s World Champion Pei Na Chen in the female fleet. Spain’s London 2012 gold medallist Marina Alabau has finished fourth twice here.
The Trofeo Princesa Sofía Iberostar has signed a collaboration agreement with the One Earth – One Ocean foundation to help protect the oceans and coastal waters. The initiatives begin at this edition, by reducing the use of plastics and by collecting waste from the sea and the beach. In addition, the organization has distributed to all the on the water personnel and participating coaches a device to prevent of fuel and oil going in the sea from the RIB’s engine.
The direct effects for the local economy are significant during tourism’s realtively low season. A recent impact survey accounted for a income of around €4.5m to the local economy spread over the month prior to the event and during competition week.
