Barcelona Olympic Sailing Week Preview

Some of the best Olympic sailors in Barcelona

The presence of international Olympic sailors at the sixth Olympic Sailing Week in Barcelona has become a great attraction. This year a lot of teams have decided to participate in the Mediterranean races in order to prepare for the Olympic Games in Sydney.

263 entries from 26 countries will be in Barcelona from Thursday, April 6th to Sunday, April 9th, to compete in the Sixth Olympic Sailing Week 2000, trophy Ciutat de Barcelona, organized by the Catalan Sailing Federation with the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation co-operation.

The most outstanding sailors are as follows:

470 male:

Gustavo Martínez and Tunte Cantero will be participating on behalf of the Spanish Olympic Commitee.

The Spanish team will have as rivals the number one pair, the French G.Phippippe and T. Cariou, as well as the Americans Foerster and Merrick, Leskinen and Heinilia from Finland and last but not least, the also French team composed by Beniot Petit and Jean F. Cuzon.

32 teams compose the total number of participants in the 470 male classification. This is the highest number of teams that will participate in this Sailing week, and that have the chance to take home the Trofeu Ciutat de Barcelona.

The participants come from Spain, France, Mexico, Austria, Turkey, Finland, United States, Ucraine, Belgium, Jamaica, Russia, Hong Kong, and Andorra.

470 female:

Natàlia Via Dufresne and Sandra Azón (who have already the passport to Sydney 2000) as well as the promising Marta Duch and Laia Tutzo on one hand, and Lucia Melero and Mencia Arteaga on the other hand will be representating the spanish female team.

A total amount of 17 teams will compete in the 470 female during this edition of the Sixth Olympic Sailing Week in Barcelona. High level. The catalans Natalia Via Dufresne and Sandra Azon have the third position in the international classification. Their most impportant rivals are Sussane Ward and Michaela Ward from Denmark (5th position at the int´l classification), Carolina Toll and Jeanette Lunde (9th position), the Australian Jenny Amstrong and Belinda Stowell (12 position), and the Russian Vlada Krstchoun and Natalia Gapanovichtch (14).

Europe female:

Both Helen Montilla (17 position) and Neus Garriga are competing in order to go to Sidney, as well as the Basque Vanesa Almeida (47), and Helena Brodin (44) from Sweden. A total of 15 participants, the most remarkable ones: Petra Niemann (5) and Christiane Petzke (7), both from Germany.

Europe male:

A total of 11 boats will particpate in this category. Josep Ramon Aragay, Gerard Marin, Jofre Rabada, Pau Balaguer, Bartolome Mari, Harald Schumacher from Germany and the french Jean Louis Naudin.

Tornado:

Fernando Leon and Josep Ballester who have the eight position in the international classification, will also participate in the Sydney competition. Also, Manuel Calavia and Yago Vazquez, Ivan Garcia and Santi Monjo, and Carlos Sabate and Ramon Lilan will participate in this category.

17 boats from 6 different countries will participate within the Tornado category. Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher from Austria (3rd position) will have to work hard against the best ones in this category, the French Pierre Pennec and Yann Guichard (4th position in the int´l classification), as well as Jean Christofe Mourniac and Phillippe Mourniac (6th), Ikivuer Backes and Laurent Voiron (10). It is important to mention the teams made by Rob Wilson and Will Howden (14), John Pierce and Barry Rocheque (15) both teams from United Kingdom, Lorenzo Bodini and Marci Bondini from Italy, and Francesco de la Torre and V. Chinca also from Italy, as well as the Argentinians Santiago Lange and Mariano Parada (25).

49er:

It is the first time this category will be part of the olympic competition in Sidney. The World Champion team made by Santiago Lopez and Javier de La Plaza as well as the second best team in the international classification, Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez (32) will compete in this category.

R. Aiximeno and Marc Figueras, Jordi Garriga and Aleix Gelabert, Toni Rivas and Fabia Cianfagna will be the representatives for Catalonia.

A total of 12 49er's French, Greek, Belgian and Finnish will compete against each other to get the gold medal in this category.

Laser:

It is important to mention the presence of 16 participants from 4 different countries. The Spanish Luis Martinez, Angelo tabernero, Daniel Turro, Albert Masip, and Jordi Capella. There is an argentinian team composed by martin Kunding, Miguel Polo and Sebastian Mazza.

A total of 12 young participants will fight in the category of Laser Radial: Vicenc Mari from the Balearic Islands, and the catalans Alvaro Gil de Bernabe, Alex Muscat, and Sergi Olle, among others.

Mistral Female:

Important to mention the presence of the Spanish Carmen Vaz (22 position), and Jorge Macial (24), Ivan Pastor (50) and Curro Manchon (65) in the Mistral Male category. Albert Pijoan and Enrique del Pozo are the most important catalans in this race.

420:

It is very important the Balearic Team. This category is considered the most valuable in order to gain access to the Olympic class 470.

Bonet/Lobo, Matheu/Comas, Torres/Armenanzas from the Balearic Federation are the highlights in this category. The catalans Isaac Pujol, Tomas Escuin, Sergi Roses, Jose Sotomayor, Oriol Gili, Daniel Cianfagna, Jose Luis Pinana and Carlos Piñana are also to be underlined.

More Information: www.vela-barcelona.com/bosw2000