The 470 World Championship kicks off at Club Nàutic s'Arenal with unstable winds

The opening day of the 470 World Championship was resolved with three races at the Club Nàutic s'Arenal. The Spanish team formed by Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman is in fourth place in a provisional classification led by two Japanese teams.

The battle for the 470 world crown is already underway. The 61 boats of 26 nationalities that will compete for the 2024 title began the competition programme divided into two groups (blue and yellow) with six days ahead and up to eleven races to qualify before the Medal Race that will decide the overall champion next Sunday.

After an initial postponement on shore due to lack of conditions, the fleet left the Club Nàutic S'Arenal at 14:30h to open the lockers of this last World Championship prior to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The conditions were tricky, with an unstable onshore wind, but they were able to open their lockers with three partials.   

Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman, the only Spanish representatives in this championship, started with a third in their group in the opening leg, followed by a brilliant victory in the second and a seven in the third. The Spanish skipper was satisfied with the consistency shown despite the difficult conditions: "Very good day, these are good results in such a competitive fleet. It's important to start well, that's what we had set as our goal, and we're happy. Today's conditions are not our ideal conditions, but we have worked hard on them over the last few months and we are very happy with how we have sailed. It's going to be a complicated week, but we are very focused on taking it one day at a time".

After the first three races of the championship, all the teams have been able to discard their worst result, allowing Japan's Tetsuya Isozaki/Yurie Seki, and Ai Yoshida/Yugo Yoshida to get rid of their 21st place and take the first lead of the week. They are followed in a triple tie by the Germans Simon Diesch/Anna Markfort (the most consistent team of the day, with 3+1+5), the Spaniards Xammar-Brugman and the Japanese Keiju Okada/Miho Yoshioka (2+2+8), current world champions. The four Japanese squads present in Mallorca are fighting their own battle to identify which of them will represent their country at the Games, and at the moment three of them are in the top five.

The 470 World Championship continues today with the second of the three qualifying days prior to the Final Series (Friday and Saturday) that will decide the positions for the Medal Race on Sunday.   

The 470 World Championship 2024 is organised, in addition to Club Nàutic S'Arenal, by the International 470 Class Association, the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation and the Balearic Sailing Federation, with the support of the Govern de les Illes Balears, the Consell Insular de Mallorca and the Ajuntament de Llucmajor.