MEDEMBLIK, THE NETHERLANDS-(20-5-2003) With 836 boats entered and over 1200 competitors, the
2003 SPA Regatta, which commences on Wednesday 21 May, guarantees to be a
tough contest with the worlds best Olympic class sailors competing in all
eleven of the Olympic disciplines.
The single handed Laser dinghy has attracted the most entries with 178 boats
competing including the six times world champion and double Olympic
medallist Robert Scheidt of Brazil, who will be looking to defend his
regatta win from 2002. Competition will be tough and with such a large entry
number the fleet will compete in a series of qualifying races before sailing
finals on Saturday and Sunday.
World number one and RYA Team GBR sailor Paul Goodison will have a tough
challenge as one of a number of sailors could win the regatta including
Palma Olympic class regatta winner Roope Suomalainen of Finland and Olympic
bronze medallist Michael Blackburn of Australia. Other Team GBR sailors who
will be looking for a good result include world ranked number five sailor Ed
Wright, Mark Howard and Dan Holman.
With 98 boats in the Finn class the battle for first place will be on. The
pecking order at the last two Olympic class regattas (Palma and Hyeres) has
seen the 1996 silver medallist Sebastien Godefroid of Belgium top the podium
from Team GBR sailor and world and European champion Ben Ainslie. For
Ainslie this is a result that he will be keen to reverse but will have to
try and resist the challenges from world number two and 1996 Olympic gold
medallist Mateusz Kusznierewicz and the world number one and Hyeres bronze
medallist Karlo Kuret from Croatia.
Other British sailors that will be looking for a good result in Medemblik
will be Andrew Simpson, Chris Brittle and Charlie Cumbley, who will all be
keen to get their foot on the podium.
The competition couldn't be tougher in the 49er class with a number of
international sailors all challenging for the podium places. Recent form
suggests that world number two Rodion Luka and George Leonchuk of Ukraine,
who won the recent Hyeres regatta, will be ones to watch as well as the
world number one and world and European Champions Iker Martinez and Xabier
Fernandez of Spain.
The Brits are also pushing hard in the class with world bronze medallists
Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith finishing fourth at Palma and second in
Hyeres. Team mates and world and European silver medallists Chris Draper and
Simon Hiscocks have also had a good start to the season finishing sixth in
Palma and fourth in Hyeres, and both teams will be looking for a podium
finish at SPA Regatta.
The two man Star class was absent in Hyeres but is back in force for SPA
Regatta with 59 boats entered. This year it will be tough to medal in the
class with a number of the top Star sailors in the world making the trip to
Holland.
Current world champions Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell will be looking to
repeat their success from last year when they won the regatta but will have
to contend against Sydney gold medallists Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl
from America, Olympic gold and bronze medallists Torben Grael and Marcelo
Ferreira from Brazil, European Champions Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom
from Sweden and world bronze medallists and world number one Xavier Rohart
and Yannick Adde from France.
In the three-women keelboat class, the Yngling, 33 boats have made the trip
to Medemblik including world champions Monica Azon, Laia Tutzo and Julia
Garcia of Spain and world silver medallists and recent Hyeres regatta
winners Ulrike Schumann, Wibke Belle and Winnie Lupert of Germany.
For Team GBR sailor Shirley Robertson this event will be a test to see how
her new crew of Sarah Webb fits into the team. Both her and crew Sarah Ayton
have been training with Webb in the UK but this week will be the real test
to see how the new partnership will perform.
As the Team GBR Mistral windsurfers have just competed in their Europeans
they will be absent from SPA, with the exception of Bryony Shaw. However
other Team GBR sailors to watch out for will be Leigh McMillan and Mark
Bulkeley and Hugh Styles and Adam May in the Tornado and Nick Rogers and Joe
Glanfield and Graham Vials and Bevis Field in the men's 470 class.
This year spectators will be able to follow SPA Regatta in depth as the
boats will be equipped with GPS/GMS receivers, which will determine the
exact location of the boats on the course areas. The receiver will send a
data message back to a computer every few seconds, which will translate the
content into a position on a chart of the racecourses on the IJsselmeer.
This will be linked in with sail numbers and names of the crew, which will
ensure that spectators worldwide will be able to follow the racing.
RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park commented, `Team GBR are looking forward to
some great racing at what is one of the world's best Olympic class regattas,
although the weather forecast for the next few days is not looking too
promising. Most of the world's top performers are competing this week, which
will ensure another tough regatta for our team, who hope to emulate our
recent run of success.`
Racing begins on Wednesday 21 May and continues through until Sunday 25 May.
Daily results and news can be found on the official website
http://sparegatta.org/2003/. A final event press release will be issued on
Sunday.
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