Racing starts at Ready Steady Tokyo, the final Sailing test event in Enoshima, Japan, on Saturday 17 August.
Potentially the British Sailing Team members taking part will form the sailing squad of Team GB at Tokyo 2020.
This event is run as a dress rehearsal for the 2020 Games with the Olympic rule of only one entry per nation in each of the ten classes, except for the Nacra 17.
This means that the fleets, will be much smaller than in a normal World or European class Championship. Around 20 competitors in most fleets, only the Laser and Radial go over 30 competitors.
The racing is normal fleet racing, comprising 10 or 12 races with one discard after the first three races.
The top ten competitors then race-off in a short, 20 minute medal race, which counts double points, to decide the final podium places.
Because of the one entry per country rule, unlike other Olympic events, countries with several top class teams, can only enter what they consider their best athelete (s), and removes the potential for multi-medal podium places.
It could also be considered that this restriction reduces the quality of competition at what should be the highest level of sailing competition.
The RYA British selection policy is not released to the public, but now that the final test event selection has been made, only a major upset here is likely to change the final Tokyo 2020 selection.
In fact the Test event selection produced very few suprises, only the Laser – Elliot Hanson, and women’s RS:X – Emma Wilson, straying from the usual suspects.
In the Nacra 17, Britain has the luxury of two selections, so it is likely that the winner between them will get the nod.
It should be noted that there are World Championship events taking place after this test event for the RS:X, 49er, 49erFX, Nacra 17 and Finn in December, so the RYA could delay selection until after those events.
Previous Olympic selection policy suggests that the core team members will be announced following the Enoshima World Cup series after the test event.
All the selected test competitors, plus other GBR squad members are entered for the World Cup event.
For the 2016 Rio Games the first confirmed sailing selections were made in the September of 2015 and the final four selections named in May 2016.
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