The pressure of competing for the remaining European places at the 2016 Rio Olympics produced tight and exciting races in the RS:X Classes at the Mallorca regatta Princesa Sofia IBEROSTAR in the Bay of Palma.
The last two countries to qualify to Olympic Games in the mens fleet were Croatia and Belarus with Hungary taking the honours in the women’s fleet. Thirty-six nations have now qualified for the mens RS:X fleet with the 26 places for the women’s also finalised.
Croatia’s Luka Mratovic (Mornar), totalling 21st pushed hard to get the national Rio ticket, and the Belarus claim was made by Mikita Tsirkun (RCOP) who finished 27th. Sarah Cholnoky (MSZA) secured Hungary’s Olympic place in the women’s RS:X fleet by finishing 35th.
Click here for the RS:X full qualification results - http://rsxclass.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/OG-2016-Qualifiers-RSX-April-16.pdf
The 47 Trofeo S.A.R. Princess Sofia regatta winners in RS:X Men’s fleet were Tom Squires (GBR) in front of Pawel Tarnowski (POL) and Byron Kokkalanis (GRE).
In Women fleet Olga Maslivets (RUS) won the Gold medal, when Flavia Tartaglini (ITA) took the Silver and Lilian De Geus (NED) Bronze medal.
Click here for the full results - http://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/en/default/races/race-resultsall
The popular well organised Princesa Sofia IBEROSTAR (March 25th – April 2nd) once again attracted a large entry with 68 nations racing in 10 Olympic Classes plus the Para Olympic, 2.4m and Dragon Class boats.
In the mens RS:X fleet, France had the largest representation with 11 competitors among the 85 entries while France and Israel (8 entries each) toped the women fleet of 63.
The success of the prestigious Princesa Sofia IBEROSTAR regatta with its high level of commitment from competing sailors was a fitting reward for regatta director Ferran Muniesa and his organisers who had called for “that extra effort on the water” to mark the importance of the Olympic qualifier event.
The Rio de Janeiro Olympics begins with the world famous opening ceremony on 5th August with the RS:X Class racing starting on 8th August running until 15th August and all culminating in the official closing of the games on 21st August. The sailing will take place on 7 racing areas on the Guanabara Bay and Copacabana Beach in Rio and will feature 380 sailors competing across ten events.
The Notice of Race for the sailing states the key conditions for the ten events and includes details on the rules, regulations, entry and qualifications guidelines, format, scoring, schedule, venue and courses. All documents can be found here - http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/about/olympic_documents_rio_2016_about.php
Athletes, coaches, trainers and other team officials shall comply with the Olympic Charter, as well as with the World Sailing rules, in order to be eligible for participation in the Olympic Sailing competition, and shall be entered by a National Olympic Committee (NOC).
Click to view the NOR here - http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/SAILINGNoticeofRace-[19974].pdf
To find out more and if you would like to view the World Sailing Olympic Website please click here - http://www.sailing.org/olympics/rio2016/index.php
Text: RS:X Class
Photos: Pedro Martinez
