Spanish sailing secures 4 places for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Big day for Spain at the Olympic Class World Championship with four country places confirmed for Paris 2024. Full house in the day's possibilities with passports sealed for 49er, 49er FX, 470 and Nacra 17. In addition, 49er, 49er FX and 470 Mixed will have Spaniards in the Medal Races.

The late entry of the wind made the crews suffer on land, with postponements of more than three hours until the first starting horn could be given, with the current again as a determining condition.

49er was the first class to finish the day's races and the first to confirm the Spanish country's place for the Paris 2024 Games. Diego Botin and Florian Trittel started the day with a fourth place that kept them second overall with the possibility of stepping on the top step of the podium, but an off line in the second race put an end to those hopes. The Cantabrian-Catalan duo continued to fight to defend their position and closed the day second overall.

With the second class finishing the day's races, 49er FX, came the second country place for Spain in the Olympic Games and the entry of Támara Echegoyen and Club Nàutic S'Arenal sailor Paula Barceló in the Medal Race. The Galician-Balearic crew has signed a 13-6-23 that places them in tenth place overall. 

The Nacra 17 was the third class that added country place for Spain, with Tara Pacheco and Andres Barrio are finally classified in 11th place. The Canarian crew will not be in the Medal Race but has achieved the main thing of this championship: the qualification of the country for Paris 2024.

The 470 Mixed category closed the full field of classes with a chance of a country place as the Catalan crew of Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman qualified in second place for the Medal Race after a spectacular comeback from seventh place. Catalan Silvia Mas and Galician Nico Rodriguez, who were fourth yesterday, dropped to eleventh place, just two points out of the top ten. 

 In the rest of the classes, there are still several options of country classification for Spain with the sailor from Club Nàutic Sa Ràpita, Nacho Baltasar in the Top 5 of the overall men's IQFoil classification.

Despite not having been included in the Paris 2024 program, Paralympic sailing continues to struggle internationally to regain its position. It was an exhibition sport in Atlanta 1996 and an Olympic sport from Sydney 2000 to Rio 2016. With participation in this World Championship, the Spanish representation has been in charge of the sailors of the Club de Vela Puerto de Andratx, Pau Homar and Ramón Gutiérrez in RS Venture, Violeta del Reino in Hansa 303 Women and Sergio Roig in Hansa 303 Men. For them it has been the last day of the championship and the Balearic Islands close their participation with a fourth place for Homar and Gutierrez, fifth for Violeta del Reino, and eighth for Sergio Roig.