Great Britain to face Spain in eSailing Nations Cup Final today

by Daniel Smith, World Sailing 6 Nov 2020 06:09 GMT 6-7 November 2020

Great Britain and Spain will go head-to-head in the inaugural eSailing Nations Cup Final on Friday 6 November at 21:00 UTC.

Great Britain captain, Mike O'Donovan, and Spain captain, Carlos Paz, will lead their teams of ten in a best-of-nine race series. Different classes, fleet sizes and racecourses will be used to test the teams' depth and performance, with the best all-round team claiming the title of best eSailing nation.

The Final will be streamed live on the Olympic Channel, World Sailing's YouTube and Facebook.

Both teams advanced directly to the Quarter Finals as top seeds following the fleet racing seeding round.

Spain were ranked as top seed and overcame Japan in convincing fashion in their Quarter Final, winning 8-1 before another convincing 7-2 victory in the Semi-Final over Denmark.

Spain's captain, Paz, is now looking forward to the challenge on Friday night, saying, "The Semi-Finals were hotly contested. Although we started 4-0, the Danish team made things difficult for us by approaching 4-2, but we reacted very well to the difficulties which makes us even more dangerous for Friday. The team is really looking forward to competing in the Final.

"We have a very well-rounded team that we hope can show their full potential against the great team of Great Britain. It is going to be a very fun and exciting battle. We hope it will be the finishing touch to this excellent competition."

Great Britain overcame Germany 7-2 in the Quarter Finals before defeating Italy 5-4 in the Semi Final to advance to the grand finale. Team member, Donnie Gilies, a former British National Champion commented, "The semi-final was very tough. There were a lot of close races which could have gone either way. We were, of course, really stoked to make the final. Although some of our team have unlimited confidence, I for one feel that making the final is already a better result than I would have predicted before the event began.

"Spain have a really strong line-up, so we'll be up against it in the final, but we can go in with a 'nothing to lose' attitude and enjoy it. It's been a really fun regatta so far, and we're all looking forward to one last challenge."

The format for the Final is available below:

The British and Spanish teams will be made up of ten eSailors. The teams must feature at least one male and one female, one captain, two certified sailors and the top four sailors from the National Championships.

The team line-ups are as follows:

Spain eSailing Nations Cup Final Line-up:

• Joan Cardona
• Patri Reino
• Cruzolator
• Antoniomddr
• LDLN - Bandido
• Miquelsitgesn
• rausanlag541TOP
• Samuel Beneyto
• ramon@541TOP
• Louis@541TOP

Great Britain eSailing Nations Cup Final Line-up:

• Deja Vu
• isswizz
• Hugh Brayshaw
• TP52
• ACF
• Donnie Gillies
• Skippafire
• Phil Manning
• AdamGP14
• speedy_1

Great Britain and Spain will face off on Friday 6 November 2020 and can be watched on Sail-World.com and YachtsandYachting.com homepages, the Olympic Channel, World Sailing's YouTube and Facebook.

Want to be in with a chance of representing your Nation in 2021? You can start practicing now on Virtual Regatta Inshore on Desktop - iOS - Android.