2017 SWC Series Round 1 in Miami, USA finished with tricky wind conditions at the Medal Races!

Yunxiu Lu showed very impressive downwind speed during the Women’s RS:X Medal Race, twice making up significant ground on the downwind legs to preserve her overall lead and take the regatta win. A very pleased and humble Lu chalked the win up to a bit of luck, perhaps brought on by the Chinese New Year.

Veteran Spanish windsurfer Marina Alabau Neira won the race, keeping her in second place.

“It was tricky,” Alabau said of the Medal Race wind conditions. “All the Chinese girls were pushing hard, pumping a lot. It was really hard to win the race. [This regatta] was really nice for me as it was super good training. It was one of my worst conditions; shifty, offshore winds. So I’m pretty happy [with silver].”

The big shift came in the battle for bronze. Three sailors started the race within four points of the final spot on the podium. Jiao Ma (CHN) seemingly put herself out of contention when she was called OCS. But she charged back to third place and fell just one point short of bronze when Manjia Zheng (CHN) finished fourth. Isobel Hamilton (GBR) who started the race in third place, finished sixth in the Medal Race and dropped to fifth overall.

Final Results: WOMEN

With a 37-point lead, France’s Louis Giard could’ve coasted through the Medal Race, finished last and still taken home the Miami title by at least 19 points. Instead however, he attacked it like he had the 12 previous races, charging from eighth at the first mark to first at the third mark before finishing third in the race.

Countryman Pierre Le Coq, the bronze medallist from Rio 2016, needed a similar comeback to hold second place in the regatta. He rounded the first mark in ninth before finishing fourth in the race, edging Mateo Sanz Lanz (SUI) by three points for second in the regatta.

Dutch sailor Kiran Badloe charged off the starting line in the Men’s RS:X Medal Race like he had something to prove. After a stunning start to the regatta-five straight top-three finishes-Badloe struggled down the home stretch and dropped to fifth place, eight points off the podium. The Medal Race followed a similar pattern. He led at the first and second marks, but then things fell apart on the second beat.

“I misread the wind a bit and threw a bit of horsepower down on the first lap and that went well,” said Badloe, who came into the regatta a little under the weather and struggled with his conditioning in the lighter winds when the RS:X requires the most effort, “but then I was just running out of breath and making mistakes and that sends you to the back pretty quick.”

Mattia Camboni (ITA) won the Medal Race with a strong performance on the final two legs and went from sixth to fourth in the overall standings.

Final Results: MEN

TRACKING

Live tracking and competitor’s analytics will be available via SAP Sailing Analytics throughout the event here - https://swc2017-miami.sapsailing.com/gwt/Home.html#/event/:eventId=b82f9012-47d8-4e9e-b3b2-a690c1db0fe3

PRESS RELEASES

World Sailing will be releasing international press releases after racing throughout the duration of World Cup Miami. All the latest news and reports will be available to read here - http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/news/index.php

TELEVISION

Medal Races on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 January will be streamed live on World Sailing’s Facebook and YouTube Channel.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Follow the event on World Sailing’s social networks and get involved in the conversation using #SWCMiami17

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ISAFWorldSailing

Instagram - https://instagram.com/isafworldsailing/

Twitter - @worldsailing

Snapchat - Follow our Story on Snapchat, search for worldsailing

SAILING WORLD CUP

The Sailing World Cup is a World-class, annual series of Olympic sailing for elite and professional sailors. Over 2,000 of the World’s leading sailors, representing over 75 nations have competed in the Sailing World Cup which offers a definitive guide to the best-of-the-best in the Olympic sailing world.

Next SWC Round 2 will be held in Hyeres, France from 23-30 April 2017

World Sailing

The Sailing World Cup Final, the climax of the international series of Olympic & Paralympic class racing, has been awarded to Santander, Spain in 2017 and to Kiel, Germany in 2018.

Santander hosted the most recent edition of the World Sailing Championships in 2014, attracting over 1,000 sailors and 400,000 spectators across two weeks of competition on the Bay of Biscay and the Bay of Santander. And Kiel, famous for hosting the internationally renowned Kieler-Woche regatta, is a regular stop on the Olympic circuit, welcoming world class sailors for a week-long festival of sailing which is combined with the largest summer festival in northern Europe.

The announcement of Santander and Kiel as future Sailing World Cup Final venues falls in line with the recent release of the vision for the World Cup series:

The Sailing World Cup Series will continue to showcase and develop Olympic Sailing, it will be a key part of a sailor’s Olympic campaign, integrate Para World Sailing, help create heroes and engage sailing sports fans, excite sponsors and broadcasters and conclude with a Final at which the winners in each event are crowned.

The northern Spanish city will host the 2017 edition of the Sailing World Cup Final from 4 - 11 June, providing the climax to a shortened series that sees events take place in Miami, USA and Hyeres, France.

On the announcement that Santander will host the 2017 Sailing World Cup Final, Juan Dominguez Munaiz, Sports Councillor for the City of Santander commented, “It will be an honour and a new challenge for Santander to host the 2017 Sailing World Cup Final. The Municipality, along with the Government of Cantabria, the Royal Maritime Club of Santander and the Spanish Sailing Federation, we are going to work from now on to try to reach the success in organization and the involvement of the citizens that we accomplished in the 2014 Sailing World Championships.”

Kiel, in the north of Germany will host the 2018 Sailing World Cup Final during Kieler-Woche, the long running festival of sailing that attracts three-million visitors across the event.

Dirk Ramhorst, Event Chairman of Kieler Woche said, “It makes us proud that Kiel will host the 2018 Sailing World Cup Final. We are happy that our concept was compelling and that the content of our bid led to the decision. We are looking forward to proving the strength of our concept.

“The Sailing World Final in Kiel will be a pinnacle event in the world of sailing in between the Olympic Games of Rio and Tokyo. Our classes portfolio will showcase the Olympic Story from the youth via the ambitious amateurs to the top sailors of the world. That said, we are looking forward to welcoming the world of sailing and World Sailing in Kiel.”

2017 Sailing World Cup Series

Miami is hosting the first Round of the 2017 Series from 22-29 January 2017 with Hyeres, France following from 23-30 April 2017. The Sailing World Cup Final in Santander will conclude the shortened series from 4 - 11 June.

Rio 2016 Olympic medallists automatically qualify for the 2017 Sailing World Cup Final and they will be joined by winners of the Sailing World Cup Miami and Hyeres Rounds. For the remaining places, qualification to the Final will be based on combined results at the Sailing World Cup Rounds, with the highest placed finishers booking their spot on the start line.

2017 - 2020 Sailing World Cup series of events

After the shortened 2017 series, the Sailing World Cup series will run from October to July every year, incorporating three Rounds and the Final at the end of June / early July.

Japan will host a Sailing World Cup Round each October from 2017 through to 2019 before holding the Final in July 2020, just weeks before the Olympic Games.

2017/18: Gamagori, Japan (October 2017), Miami (January 2018), Hyeres (May 2018) + Kiel Final (June/July 2018)

2018/19: Enoshima, Japan (October 2018), Miami (January 2019), Europe Round (May-June) + TBC Final (June/July 2019)

2019/20: Enoshima, Japan (October 2019), Miami, (January 2020) Europe Round (May-June) + Enoshima, Japan Final (July 2020)

By Daniel Smith - World Sailing

The first stop of World Sailing’s 2017 World Cup Series will see over 450 competitors race across the ten Olympic classes from Regatta Park at Coconut Grove, Miami from 24 – 29 January. Miami welcomes back five of the 2016 edition winners as well as 2016 Sailing World Cup Final champions while sailing ‘legend’ Robert Scheidt changes the One Person Dinghy for the Two Person Skiff. You can read more at http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/news/latest_news.php. Racing commences on Tuesday 24 January and Medal Races on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 will be broadcast live on the World Sailing TV YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/worldsailingtv - which will draw the competition to a close. Information on how to follow the event is below: RESULTS / ENTRIES A full list of sailors registered to sail in Miami is available to view here - http://manage2sail.com/en-US/eventonly/f61c409e-4fad-49a6-baa6-f9287b804645/style/worldcup#!/entries?classId=e2d355cc-1d5b-4dfb-b6b9-58c9d28c0cfa. Results are available via the Manage2Sail results centre here - http://manage2sail.com/en-US/eventonly/f61c409e-4fad-49a6-baa6-f9287b804645/style/worldcup#!/results?classId=e2d355cc-1d5b-4dfb-b6b9-58c9d28c0cfa TRACKING Live tracking and competitor’s analytics is available via SAP Sailing Analytics throughout the event here - https://swc2017-miami.sapsailing.com/gwt/Home.html#/event/:eventId=b82f9012-47d8-4e9e-b3b2-a690c1db0fe3 PHOTOGRAPHY High resolution imagery free for editorial usage will be provided throughout the Sailing World Cup Miami by Sailing Energy. Imagery will be available to download via - http://worldsailing.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/SWC-Miami-2017/C0000qs4UzX984qA. The password to download is WSimages PRESS RELEASES World Sailing will be releasing international press releases after racing throughout the duration of World Cup Miami. All the latest news and reports will be available to read here - http://www.sailing.org/news/sailing-world-cup.php#.WEP085L3DsE TELEVISION Racing and action shots plus interviews in English and native language will be available daily on the FTP server from Tuesday 24th January-Sunday 29th January. For further information please contact: Blanca López Handrich M: +34 657 854 173 E: [email protected] Sabina Mollart Rogerson M: +44 (0) 7922 140 148 E: [email protected] Medal Races on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 January will be streamed live on World Sailing’s Facebook and YouTube Channel. URLs and embed codes are available below: SWC Miami - Medal Races - RS:X, 49er, 49erFX, Nacra 17 URL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL42wJRsq1Q Embed - <iframe width=”854″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/SL42wJRsq1Q” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> SWC Miami - Medal Races - 470, Finn, Laser, Laser Radial URL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb-yyMEwwOs Embed - <iframe width=”854″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qb-yyMEwwOs” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> SOCIAL MEDIA Follow the event on World Sailing’s social networks and get involved in the conversation using #SWCMiami2017 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ISAFWorldSailing Instagram - https://instagram.com/isafworldsailing/ Twitter - @worldsailing Snapchat - Follow our Story on Snapchat, search for worldsailing CONTACT World Sailing Communications Manager Daniel Smith M: +44 (0)7771 542 131 E: [email protected] World Sailing Press Officer Richard Aspland M: +44 (0)7764 587 926 E: [email protected] World Sailing Press Officer - Spanish Neus Jordi M: +34 627 885 051 E: [email protected] Sailing World Cup Miami – Press Officer Stuart Streuli M: +1 401-864-0511 E: [email protected] By Richard Aspland - World Sailing

Editors’ notes:

SAILING WORLD CUP The Sailing World Cup is a World-class, annual series of Olympic sailing for elite and professional sailors. Over 2,000 of the World’s leading sailors, representing over 75 nations have competed in the Sailing World Cup which offers a definitive guide to the best-of-the-best in the Olympic sailing world. ABOUT WORLD SAILING World Sailing is the world governing body for the sport of sailing, officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Founded in 1907, World Sailing’s vision is for a world in which millions more people fall in love with sailing; inspired by the unique relationship between sport, technology and the forces of nature; we all work to protect the waters of the world. World Sailing is made up of 145 Member National Authorities, the national governing bodies for sailing around the world and 114 World Sailing Class Associations. For more information about World Sailing please go to sailing.org or contact [email protected] Issued on behalf of World Sailing

The qualification system for the 2018 Sailing World Championships set to be held in Aarhus, Denmark from 30 July to 12 August 2018 has been released.

Aarhus 2018 Worlds Qualification System
Aarhus 2018 Test Event Qualification System

The Sailing World Championships are held every four years and is the largest gathering of Olympic class sailors. At the 2014 edition in Santander, Spain, more than 1,100 sailors from 82 nations attended with hundreds of thousands of spectators taking to the promenade and spectator dune.

Aarhus 2018 is the first and most significant qualification event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with 40% of the nation quotas places available across the ten Olympic events.

Second only to the Olympic Games, the 2018 Worlds, organised in collaboration between World Sailing, Dansk Sejlunion, Sailing Aarhus, Sport Event Denmark and the City of Aarhus aims to become a record breaker. More than 100 nations are predicted to compete in the 2017 European City of Culture with new standards to be set for both sailors and spectators.

Aarhus 2018 will also see Men’s and Women’s Kiteboarding introduced into the championships for the first time.

Alastair Fox, Director of Events at World Sailing commented, “Excellent progress continues to be made by the Aarhus 2018 Organising Committee and the local authorities. The team have set ambitious targets that will make the championships memorable not only for the attending sailors but also to spectators and those following the event around the world.

“The qualification system for the Aarhus 2018 Worlds offers every World Sailing Member National Authority one entry per event. This will enable Aarhus 2018 to attract a record number of nations.”

Klaus Natorp, Head of Aarhus 2018 Sailing World Championships added, “All four partners behind the event: The City of Aarhus, Sport Event Denmark, The Danish Sailing Association and Sailing Aarhus are setting all sails in their efforts to make the Aarhus 2018 Sailing World Championships a truly memorable event that will combine world class sailing and a maritime festival for thousands of sailors and spectators.

“Our teams of volunteers are fully engaged in their training and education programme and they are showing great enthusiasm and professionalism which reflect Denmark’s long track record of executing world class sailing events.

“It will be fantastic to host teams from up to 100 different nations and share the celebration of the city’s return to the sea with the brand new sailing centre at the tip of the urban development of the docklands of Aarhus.”

More on Aarhus 2018 at http://www.aarhus2018.com/

About the Worlds

The Sailing World Championships is the principal qualification event for the Olympic Sailing Competition.

The largest congregation of Olympic sailors converged on Cadiz in southwest Spain for the first World Championships from 11-24 September 2003.

From 28 June-13 July 2007, Cascais, Portugal hosted the second edition of the Sailing World Championships. Building on the success of Cadiz four years earlier, 1,350 sailors and 900 boats represented 76 nations in the biggest Olympic sailing event yet.

Perth, Australia hosted the third Worlds in December 2011. 1,200 sailors from 79 nations took part, racing for world championship glory and Olympic qualification. As the principal qualification event for the London 2012 Olympic Games, 75% of all national places were decided.

Santander, Spain hosted the 2014 Worlds from 8-21 September 2014. The 2014 Worlds served as the first Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition qualifier with 50% of Rio 2016 places awarded.

About Aarhus

Aarhus is a lively and young city bustling with energy and innovation as well as a sense of history. A rich and multifaceted cultural life flourishes with small, experimental theatre groups, art galleries, offbeat shops and trendy cafes. The scale of the city makes it easy and quick to get around and the atmosphere will make you feel welcome.

The Competition Venue will be established at the existing Aarhus Yachting Harbour and at the neighbouring city quarter, Aarhus Ø. Aarhus Yachting Harbour is an extensive recreational area which is home to numerous leisure organisations, with diving, rowing, kayaking, yachting and motorboat clubs as well as angling associations. The Harbour is ideally situated within easy walking distance of downtown Aarhus and has several thousand daily users.

The harbour is also a favourite leisure destination for many Aarhus citizens, who enjoy the restaurants and shops or simply the atmosphere, natural setting, clean bathing waters, fishing and the fresh air.