The Canary Islands are for the first time the continental passport to compete in three modalities of Olympic sailing: Nacra 17, 49er and 49er FX. The results can be followed live on the official website Lanzarote International Regatta, while the medal race will also be streamed.
Sunday, 21st March 2021 - The emblematic island of Lanzarote becomes until 26th March the venue for the European and African Olympic qualifier regatta for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, to be held in the middle of this year. The Canary Islands have a long tradition in sailing sports, but it is thanks to the guarantees of health safety, its location as a tri-continental bridge and the good climate of the islands that allows water sports all year round, with excellent conditions for sailing, that it has become the ideal regatta course.
The programme foresees 3 races per day, about 18 races in total, plus the Medal Race, on three different race courses. Lanzarote will be the last chance to qualify for the Olympics, due to the fact that the Olympic places are very limited for each modality, there are still many countries without a place that could miss out on the Olympics. However, for the countries already qualified, the islands will be the stage where they will proclaim their Olympic representatives for each of these three classes, as is the case of France.
Which European countries are competing for a place at the Olympic Games?
Nacra 17: Finland, Croatia, Netherlands, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Russia
49er FX: Sweden, Italy, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Belgium, Russia
49er: Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal, Estonia, Slovenia, Turkey, Russia
Tunisia is the African country aiming to represent Africa in the Nacra 17.
More than 240 sailors of more than 30 nationalities from all over the world
More than 120 boats, more than 120 coaches, more than 100 staff members and more than 15 journalists will participate in the regatta. In total, around 500 people are directly involved in the event. To watch the competition in the front row there will be a daily boat available.
Among the entries, Tara Pacheco stands out, the Canary Islander is a former world champion and is in the world top ten. Together with Florian Trittel from Barcelona, they will represent Spain at the Olympic Games in the Nacra 17 class.
In the men's 49er, Cantabrian Diego Botín and Galician Iago López are among the favourites, after finishing ninth at the Rio 2016 Games and fourth at the 2019 Worlds in New Zealand, qualifying Spain as a country for Tokyo, as well as being proclaimed 49er European champions.
In the women's 49er FX class, Galician Tamara Echegoyen and Mallorcan Paula Barceló will be the representatives in Tokyo, after winning the World Sailing Championships. Echegoyen was also gold medallist at the London 2012 Games (in the Elliott 6m class) and fourth at the Rio 2016 Games in the same 49er FX class.
