| PALAMOS, SPAIN-(17-12-2003) The 28th edition of the Christmas Race has been officially presented in Palamós. The presentation has taken place at the Museu de la Pesca and has been presided over by the town Mayoress, Maria Teresa Ferrés and the Club de Vela Palamós President, Xavier Ribera. Other members sitting at the presidential table were the Sports councillor, Jordi Ors; the Girona delegate of the Federació Catalana de Vela, Agustí Blanch and sailors Mitch Booth, Australian olympic sailor in the Barcelona 92 and Atlanta 96 Olympics and pre-olympic Dutch team member in Tornado Class and Joan Salamé, one of the young, promising Spanish sailors in Laser class, who won the bronze medal at the last class European championship.
With less than one week to go for the start of the Christmas Race, over 200 teams representing 24 countries from the five continents have entered the regatta. It is a pre-olympic event and it considered the first event of the coming year by the ISAF and the EUROSAF. The Christmas Race is the Spanish regatta in the EUROLYMP circuit, which includes one regatta per country and among which we find SPA Regatta (Holland), Semaine Olympique Hyères (France)or Kieler Woche (Germany.
Palamós has always been a traditional racing area in Europe and there a several teams already training here. Besides, many teams have confirmed Palamós will be their training venue for the Athens Olympics. The Finn Dutch team is now in Palamós and the whole Catalan team plans an official training in Palamos this weekend.
The Mayoress, María Teresa Ferrés, wanted to outline “the importance of the regatta for the whole town and the intention of the City council to keep working so that Palamós continues to be a World sailing reference`. The President of the Club de Vela Palamós, Xavier Ribera, mentioned that “being a pre-olympic year, the regatta would welcome two generations of sailors, those fighting for a place in Athens and the young crews working hard to be on the top and aiming at participating at the 2008 Games in Pekin`. On the other hand, Dutch sailor Mitch Booth, who has one of his houses in the Baix Empordà and uses Palamós as a training venue, is at present third in the World Sailing Ranking List and he will once again take part in the regatta: “Ten years ago when I was getting ready for the Barcelona Olympics I alreadyparticipated in the Christmas Race, which is undoubtedly one of the most important regattas of the world. This year it is specially attractive because it is held in Mediterranean waters and it is close to Athens`.
We can outline the participation of some members of the Spanish pre-olympic team, Rafael Trujillo (La Línea de Mar a Mar) in Finn class; Fernando Echavarri/Antón Paz (Telefónica Movistar) in Tornado; Neus Garriga (Jeantex-Rockport) in Europe class. Italian sailor Luca Devotti, silver medal at the Sydney 2000 Games, has also entered in Finn class.
|
