Spain debuts at the World Championship in The Hague with 5 provisional places for Paris 2024

The Spanish sailors have made a strong start to the World Championship in The Hague where the first 107 places for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are being distributed. After yesterday's day, the Spanish team has closed the scores with five classes in provisional country places for the next Games: 49er, 49er FX, Nacra 17, ILCA 7 and 470 Mixed.

Among the 28 sailors who are part of the Spanish team, 9 are Balearic, including the sailor of the Club Nàutic S'Arenal, Paula Barceló, who along with her teammate Támara Echegoyen, is in eighth place in the overall standings, a country place for Paris 2024. After a day with complicated conditions, the Spanish tandem will sail in the Gold group in the Final Series.  "The ups and downs of the wind made that in many moments the strong current was decisive, to which has been added the entry of numerous clouds that have produced abundant roles in the race course. It has been quite complicated, but we have fought and we will continue to fight," said Barceló at the end of the day.

In the 470 Mixed class the teams of Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman, plus Silvia Más and Nico Rodríguez, have moved up to fifth and sixth overall, putting Spain into Olympic Games. 

Still on the World Championship podium are Diego Botín and Florian Trittel, second in 49er after an exceptional round of racing in which they posted a 1-1-2. In addition, the Spanish duo was repaired by the Jury in the last two races yesterday after the rollover due to the collision of the German boat, which changed their score to be only two points away from the gold medal.

In Nacra 17, the Canary Islanders Tara Pacheco and Andrés Barrio moved up from 10th to 7th place after an excellent 4-3-2. This category enters its Final Series today with the Spanish crew in the Gold group.

With a large fleet of 138 participants in ILCA 7 and 109 in ILCA 6, these two categories are added to those already competing in the World Championship, and they do it with good results of the Spanish in ILCA 7, where in addition to placing Spain in places by country, Joel Rodriguez closes the first Top5 of the classification. 

The Spanish Paralympic team is also achieving great results in this World Championship. The sailors of the Club de Vela Puerto de Andratx, Violeta del Reino and Sergi Roig, are in sixth and ninth position respectively in the Hansa 303 category. So, for the moment, Spain would have two assured places for the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024.

Today is rest day for the 49er and 49er FX categories, and the 470 Mixed will resume the competition with their Qualifying Series. In addition, today is also the turn of the Formula Kite and IQFoil, where the sailor of the Club Nàutic Sa Ràpita, Nacho Baltasar, and the Club Nàutic S'Arenal, Bernat Tomás, will try to get, along with his teammate Jorge Aranzueque, for the desired place for Spain for the next Games.