24 Jul 2023
Racing starts today
Racing starts today with Spain, Greece and Germany start as great favourites in the 420 World Championship in Alicante.
The Real Club de Regatas de Alicante and the 420 International class are organizing from July 21 to 29 the 420 World Championship with the participation of 277 crews from 22 countries. Last Friday the Opening Ceremony was held, which officially opened the World Championship on the Esplanade, in the heart of the city of Alicante, with the parade of all teams.
While the echoes of the 27th TabarcaVela Diputación de Alicante -the flagship regatta of the Real Club de Regatas- are still ringing, and practically without a break, the 420 World Championship starts this weekend at the facilities of ’El Tiro’, the dinghy sailing base of the RCRA. And it does so with one of the largest entries in recent years.
There will be five World Championship titles distributed among the categories Men/Mixed, Women and U17.
The participation is spectacular, with crews from the five continents represented: Angola, Australia, Bulgaria, Brazil, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and United States.
The Spanish team is the largest with 42 crews, followed by Italy with 30 and Germany with 29.
In the last World Championship held in 2022 in Lake Balaton (Hungary) the Mens podium was entirely Spanish, with the Andalusian brothers Fernando and Carlos Flethes, gold; the Catalans Sebastian Riquelme and Miguel Perez, silver and the Balearic Ian Walker and Finn Dicke, bronze. Of the three crews, two will be looking for a repeat podium. The Flethes brothers will not be defending their title, but the other two crews, who are in Alicante, will be looking for victory.
Meanwhile, the current U17 world champions in Hungary, the Germans Severin Gericke and Xaver Schwarz, have made the leap to the mens category. Although the competition will be tough because there are also the second and third in the previous world, the canaries Miguel Angel Morales and Alejandro Martin and the Germans Valentina Steinlen and Lea Adolph, third U17 and first women who make the leap to the women’s category.
Just ten days ago the 420 European Championship was held in Gydnia (Poland), with victory in Open of the Greeks Iakovina Kerzkezou and Dannae Giannouli, and that in Alicante start as big favorites to win the World Championship in the Women’s category. They will have as great rivals the Spanish Maria Perello and Marta Cardona -silver in the 2022 World Championship- and the Germans Beeke and Siri Segger -bronze-, among others.
In U17 the Greeks Georgios Iraklis Michapoulos and Ion Stamatios Striomatias won the European Championship in their category and now they want to repeat the same success in the World Championship.
Races from Monday to Saturday
On Friday, July 21, the opening ceremony was held and, together with Saturday, was dedicated to registration and measurement.
Sunday July 23rd was the official training day, where the fleet had the opportunity to participate in a test race.
From Monday July 24th to Wednesday July 26th qualifying races will take place, where the fleet will be divided into groups and from which Gold Fleet will be decided. It will be these boats who will fight for the medals from Thursday July 27th to Saturday July 29th, when we will know the new world podiums of the 420 class.
