The 49er and 49erFX World Championships are officially underway in Lanzarote, featuring 126 teams from 36 nations.
Logan Dunning Beck suffered a fractured fibula in a practice race during the weekend and is set to fly back to New Zealand, and is likely to be out of action for a number of weeks.
Plus the 470 Olympic Champion from 2016 and the 2018 49er World Champion, Sime Fantela has been forced to fly home to Croatia due to severe illness.
The forecast suggests the sailors will be fully stretched on the trapeze for most of the week, which surely marks out defending World Champions Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler as hot favourites to defend their first world title won last year in The Hague.
Despite setbacks, the excitement builds as the sailors prepare for a week of intense competition in the unpredictable Lanzarote waters.
Diego Botin was also lucky to have narrowly escaped becoming another retiree after a close call during training.
Doing his best to avoid a collision with another boat resulted in the Spanish skipper hanging by his foot from the footloop with the boat on its side. Botin was fortunate to avoid breaking his foot or ankle.
British Entries Men
GBR 30 James PETERS and Fynn STERRITT (Ranked 12th in World)
GBR 505 Duncan GREGOR and Freddie LONSDALE
GBR 130 Elliott WELLS and Billy VENNIS-OZANNE
GBR 140 Fin ARMSTRONG and Ewan GRIBBIN
GBR 12 James GRUMMETT and TBA
British Entries Women
GBR 5 Freya BLACK and Saskia TIDEY (Ranked 8th in World)
GBR 713 Eleanor KEERS and Jessica JOBSON
Related Post:
49er/49erFX Worlds in Lanzarote . . . First stop on the road to Paris Olympics
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