267 sailors from 44 countries have already formalized their registration to participate in the European Laser Senior Championship being held in Las Palmas from 26 February to 4 March.
The Real Club Náutico de Gran Canaria, Real Federación Española de Vela and the EURILCA organize the regatta in which several Olympic medalists and world champions are participating.
The Europeans in Gran Canaria serve several Olympic teams like the Spanish or the United States as a selection regatta to designate their representatives in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, which begin on August 5.
Three competitions will be held: The male Olympic (Laser Standard) and female (Laser Radial) and male Laser Radial.
As host country, Spain has the largest team, with a total of 36 sailors. The current Spanish Olympic team is composed of Canarian sailors: Joel Rodriguez and Joaquin Blanco, both of RCNGC in Laser Standard, and in Radial Martina Reino (also of RCNGC) and Alicia Cebrian from Tenerife.
Olympic medalists Cypriot Paulos Kontides 2012–silver in London and the Dutch Marit Bouwmester silver (also in London) have registered and the current world champion, Denmark’s Anne Marie Rindom, Croatian Toni Stipanovic, fourth at the last Olympics.
The largest fleet only a month to start the championship belongs to the Laser Standard class, with 130 registered sailors. The most represented continent is Europe with 27 countries. Being an open competition, also sailors from they travel from New Zealand, Peru, United States, Hong Kong and Korea have registered.
109 female Olympic sailors have formalized their registration: 24 European teams plus Australia, Canada, Singapore, United States, Turkey and Japan.
Laser Radial Men has 40 competitors.
RCNGC has a new account number for bank transfers to pay entry fees for the Regata de Carnaval :
la Caixa
Pl. de Santa Isabel, 9
35001 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Canary Islands. Spain.
Swift code: CAIXESBBXXX
IBAN: ES27 2100 1668 1202 0018 6862
The Trofeo Isla de Gran Canaria event was conceived to respond to the increasing number of sailors from various countries who choose to extend their winter training sessions at our club. Created as an incentive to help sailors prepare for competition, the Trophy’s become a well established regatta in a very short time. Last year’s event included British Olympian Alison Young, who took the gold in the Laser Radial class in a field of Norwegian, Hungarian, Dutch, Polish, Ukrainian and Spanish competitors. In Laser Standard the victory went to local sailor Joaquín Blanco, the Spanish champion responsible for securing Spain a place at Rio. Trofeo Isla de Gran Canaria will be held from 8-10 January, just one month before the next event on our Gran Canaria Sail in Winter programme.