The Club Nàutic S’Arenal puts at risk several Olympic spots with the 470 World Championships

Sixty three crew from 27 different countries will participate in the first great challenge of the season of the mixed class 470, the World Championships 2024, which will take place at the Club Nàutic S’Arenal from the 24th of February to the 3rd of March. The event will decide fur Olympic places for Paris 20204.

With the Paris Olympics just a few months away, the World Championships are a critical test to check the form of the teams in the final stretch to Olympic glory next summer. The mixed 470 class will hold its 2024 World Championship (470 World Championship) at Club Nàutic S'Arenal (CNA) from February 24th to March 3rd. While some crews can focus solely on a good performance in the bay of Palma, others have the added pressure of having to qualify their country for the Games. And, for some countries, this event is an important part of their selection process to decide who will wear the national colors at the Games.

Arenal will gather the best specialists of the mixed class 470. The reigning world champions, Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka from Japan, who will dominate the 2023 World Championship in the waters off the Netherlands, and their predecessors, Luise Wanser and Philipp Autenrieth from Germany, who won the 2022 title in Israel, will not be missing.

China (with six crews), France (four), Germany (six) and Great Britain (six) are coming to the Worlds with particularly strong teams, but all eyes will be on the home team: Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman. Current leaders of the absolute ranking of the class, the Spanish representatives in Paris 2024 arrive in top form with the intention of improving the second place obtained in the last two world championships.

The CNA was designated to host the 2020 edition of the 470 World Championship, but the pandemic first postponed and later cancelled the event. Ferrán Muniesa, general manager of the CNA recalls: "The cancellation of the 2020 edition was a hard blow, because the day it was cancelled was the same day we were starting the measurements. Part of the organizing team had already arrived and others were on their way. And it was a disappointment, because that year we had two World Championships (470 and Finn), it was an Olympic year, and we were very excited and looking forward to it. Organizing a World Championship in an Olympic year is doubly exciting, because it's like a prelude to the Games".

Muniesa recalls that it is not the first time that the club hosts a World Championship of 470: "Arenal already organized a 470 World Championship in September 1998, and it was a very important regatta for the club at that time. In 2016 we did the European Championship and now the World Championship. The 470 class has always felt at home at Arenal, we love to host them. It is a class that Spain has brought us some medal sailors of brutal quality: Theresa Zabell, Jordi Calafat, Natalia Via Dufresne, Jordi Xammar,...".

The manager of the CNA emphasizes the importance that this event will allow the teams to extend their stay in Mallorca to continue working on their Olympic preparation: "it gives them the opportunity to be here for a long period, this month of February, March and until the end of the Sofia". The 53rd Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by Iberostar will be held from March 29th to April 6th.

The choice of the CNA is not accidental, as the president of the 470 class, Andreas Kosmatopoulos, emphasizes: "We are very happy to hold the World Championship in Palma. We owed it to them to come back and finish what we started in 2020". For Kosmatopoulos, holding the event in El Arenal is a guarantee: “With all they know about organizing big regattas every year, including the great success of the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by Iberostar every spring, we are in good hands. The bay of Palma is capable of offering a wide range of conditions, flat water or big waves, light, medium or strong winds. Winning in Palma requires very thorough sailing, the true test of a world champion.”