A clash of dates has left the Hempel World Cup Series event, 20 to 25 January in Miami, USA, looking light on entries.
With the Nacra 17, 49er, 49erFX, Laser, Radial and RS:X Olympic classes all having their 2020 Worlds take place in Australia in February, and the warm-up events already underway, few top competitors can find the time to attend the Miami event.
The British Sailing Team has only one entry at the USA World Cup event, Luke Patience and Chris Grube in the men’s 470, where they will face a top quality fleet including the world champions, Australia’s Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan.
The 470 Worlds are slightly later, in March in Spain, so they have plenty of time to fit in the Miami trip.
Although the top British 470 women, the 2019 world champions Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre, are skipping Miami to head straight for the 2020 Worlds warm-up events.
The Aussie championship events will also (possibly) settle the final two Team GB places for Tokyo 2020 – the men’s Laser and the mixed Nacra 17.
The Olympic Classes Princess Sofia Regatta at Palma, Mallorca at the end of March will kick off the European season. Following that it’s onto round 3 of the World Cup, the only European event, in Genoa, Italy from 13 April.
After that the Finn class will hold their Gold Cup (worlds) in Palma, Mallorca in early May.
This will see Giles Scott aiming to regain some bragging points before the action starts to ramp-up in Enoshima, Japan with the Hempel World Cup Series Final in mid June.
Although Scott will also be fitting in the second America’s Cup World Series event on the INEOS Team UK foiling monohull on the Solent, off Portsmouth in early June.
And then of course we are into the Tokyo Olympics in late July . . .
The British Olympic Association have named 12 competitors for eight of the ten sailing events to date.
Tokyo 2020 Team GB – The 12 selected sailors are:
- Giles Scott: Finn (Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy)
- Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre: 470 Women (Women’s Two Person Dinghy)
- Luke Patience and Chris Grube: 470 Men (Men’s Two Person Dinghy)
- Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey: 49erFX (Women’s Skiff)
- Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell: 49er (Men’s Skiff)
- Alison Young: Laser Radial (Women’s One Person Dinghy)
- Emma Wilson: RS:X Women (Women’s Windsurfer)
- Tom Squires: RS:X Men (Men’s Windsurfer)
Related Post:
RSS – Posts