The 29er World Championship, which will be held from July 30 to August 6 at the Club Nàutic El Balís, will have an unprecedented number of participants: 245 boats from 26 countries and 4 continents.
Spain will have 19 crews and among them there is one that stands out above all, the one formed by the brothers Mateo and Simón Codoñer, who defend the title of world champions won in 2021 at their club, RCN Valencia. In the women’s category, Paula and Isabel Laiseca from Gran Canaria also know what it’s like to climb to the podium of a World Cup, after hanging the bronze medal in Valencia.
Among the international fleet, the French Hugo Revil and Karl Devaux, sub-17 world runners-up, will also be in Catalan waters; like the Germans Carl Krause and Max Georgi, who were bronze in the last World Cup event.
Regarding the local fleet, it will also be very large with Edu Ferrer/Fran Nuñez, Sebastián Riquelme/Miquel Pérez, Ona García/Tom Porta and Alex Boquet/Tania Bonilla, among others.
The countries that will be present at the 29er World Cup are: Germany, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, the United States, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, the Virgins, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Switzerland.
The president of the Club Nàutic El Balís, Francisco Javier Ripoll, explains that “We are very pleased to once again host a World Championship in our club and more than one class like the 29er. The whole team has been working with great enthusiasm for a year and a half on this project, so that it is not only a great sporting event but also a social and economic one for the territory”, and adds that “the link between the town of Sant Andreu de Llavaneres and an event of these dimensions helps to focus and place Llavaneres on the world map” .
Joan Mollerus, international president of the 29er class, is very excited about this championship: “We are delighted to see 245 teams on the race track for the largest 29er World Championship in history. After 2 years of pandemic-related travel restrictions, we are very excited to welcome back the teams from Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong to this World Cup!” and adds “we are grateful to our hosts at El Balis, who provide excellent organization, excellent races and warm hospitality”.
On July 29 and 30 the official measurements and registrations will be carried out, on Sunday the 31st registration closing day, it will be a day of official training and the opening ceremony will be held. And starting on August 1, the first tests will be held, where the fleet will be divided into six groups, with three days of qualifying regattas -from Monday to Wednesday- and three days of the final phase, with Saturday, August 6 as closing of the competition. In total, 18 sleeves are scheduled to be held (9 for the Qualifying Phase and 9 for the Final Phase).
National and international reference
The Club Nàutic El Balís is one of the reference clubs in Europe and now it will be in the world for the 29er class, since it organizes the MedSailing every winter, a regatta included in the 29er EuroCup circuit, since its inception a decade ago . Experience in this type of event is important and the Club Nàutic El Balís has first-class facilities and equipment to be able to carry out competitions of this magnitude every year.
In recent years it has organized international regattas such as the J80 European Championship (2014), the Finn World Masters (2018) and the Europe class World Championship (2109).
In 2023 the tenth edition of this international regatta will be held, fully integrated into the annual calendar of the Club’s competitions.
It has also hosted the final phase of the European AquaX Pro jet ski circuit (2017 and 2018). At the national level, the Spanish European Cup (2015), the Spanish 420 Championship and the Spanish Optimist Cup (2016), the Spanish Laser Master Championship (2019) and the Spanish 420 Cup (2021) .
Report a bug
www.abc.es
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism