Both Chris Draper sailing with the Sydney Olympic silver medallist Simon Hiscocks and Paul Brotherton sailing with Mark Asquith have been enjoying a great tussle this year as the teams battle it out for the all important Olympic spot to represent Great Britain in the 49er class next year in Athens.

So far this year, the results have been fairly even, although Draper and Hiscocks seem to have the edge after recently winning the last two Olympic class regattas in Holland and Germany. Brotherton and Asquith have never been far behind and with fellow British team mates Alister Richardson and Peter Greenhalgh also seeing a return to form after finishing sixth at Kiel week last month, this event will be a real test to see who is the dominating British team.

On the international front there will be a strong presence from the Spanish teams with the current world champions Iker Martinez/Xabier Fernandez looking to defend their European title. As well as the British pairings, they will have to fend of the challenges from their team mates Santiago Lopez Vazquez/Javier De La Plaza, as well as the world number one ranked sailors Rodion Luka/George Leonchuk of Ukraine.

The championship gets underway today hosted from the Real Club Nautico de Laredo with three days of qualifying races. The final series commences from Thursday 17 through to Saturday 19 July. Daily results can be found on the event website www.rcnlaredo.es/ingles/paginas/campeonato.html. The RYA will issue a final event press release with the overall results and news on the last day.

Source: Sacha Oswald