The 51st Princesa Sofía Mallorca kicks off with a show in the bay of Palma
The first day of competition of the 51 Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofía Mallorca presented a challenge in the form of wind, rough seas and cold in the bay of Palma.
Five of the ten classes of this edition premiered their lockers, including the historic debut of the spectacular iQFoil in their race to Paris 2024. Tomorrow the Formula Kite will debut, which will be the fastest class in the history of the Olympic Games, as well like the rest of the classes to complete the fleet of nearly 800 boats that will compete until Saturday. The Barcelona tandem Jordi Xammar/Nora Brugman and the Sevillian Pilar Lamadrid are second in the 470 Mixed and iQFoil Women, respectively.
The first scoring event for the 2022 Hempel World Cup Series is already underway. The 51st Princesa Sofía Mallorca began with a lethal cocktail of conditions in the bay of Palma, with winds above 20 knots, waves and low temperatures. The first major Olympic class regatta in Europe since March 2019 met the highest expectations.
Today the ILCA 6, ILCA 7, 470 Mixed, iQFoil Men and iQFoil Women classes were convened, bringing together more than half a thousand boats and boards in the bay. The two categories of the new Olympic windsurfing iQFoil (Men and Women) competed for the first time in a world circuit event, a debut that allowed the show they will star in their race to Paris 2024 to advance.
iQFoil: Great premiere of Pilar Lamadrid
The iQFoils were the first to hit the pitch in the bay of Palma. They did it in order: first the masculine modality (Men) and then the feminine (Women). The number of entries (101 men and 74 women) forced the Race Committee to divide each category into two groups. The men’s iQFoil Men completed four heats to establish the British Samuel Sills as the first leader of the week (thanks to three wins out of four possible and an offline that he could rule out), followed by his compatriots Finn Hawkins (2-1-9- 3) and Andrew Brown (4-2-1-6). The Galician Tomás Vieito occupies a meritorious provisional fifth position after a magnificent first day (2-8-2-2).
In iQFoil Women three tests could be played that confirmed the announced duel between the French Hélène Noesmoen (17-2-2-1) and the Sevillian Pilar Lamadrid (1-1-14-4), first and second respectively facing the second working day. Behind the current world champion and the second in the world ranking are four components of the Israeli federation, led by Shachar Reshef (3-3-1-3).
470 Mixed: Xammar/Brugman shine in their debut
The 470 mixed is another of the novelties highlighted in this Princesa Sofía Mallorca. The evolution of the class (divided into men’s and women’s until Tokyo 2020) caused a radical restructuring of the crews after the Games and today the Bay of Palma was the scene of its first big test on the way to Paris 2024. The Spanish tandem formed by Jordi Xammar (bronze medal of 470 in Tokyo) and Nora Brugman opened his locker with the first partial victory of the championship ahead of the boat of Giacomo Ferrari and Bianca Caruso. Both teams alternated positions in the second round to return to shore tied on three points at the head of a provisional team led by the Italian boat, ahead of the Spanish and the Australian of Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas (6-6).
ILCA 6 and ILCA 7: 231 ships in the bay
The massive ILCA 7 men’s category this week has the best specialists in the world, including the champion and runner-up of the last Games. No less than 165 sailors face each other for the glory of the Sofia, and they do so divided into three groups. At the end of this opening day, the first leader of the championship is the Cypriot Pavlos Kontides (silver in London 2012) after winning the two contested races. They are followed tied on points by the current European champion, the British Michael Beckett (2-1), and in third place the German Philipp Buhl (1-2).
In the women’s ILCA 6 (66 registered) a single heat was played that was won by the Hungarian Mária Érdi, followed by the Dutch Maxime Jonker and the Canadian Sarah Douglas. The three lead the provisional.
Tomorrow everyone sails
The second day will bring together for the first time the ten participating classes, adding to the five that competed today the 49er, 49erFX, Nacra 17 and the Formula Kite Men and Women, protagonists of the historic debut of kitesurfing in a Hempel World Cup Series event . Tomorrow, 115 kites (77 in the men’s category and 38 in the women’s category) will fly over the sky over the bay of Palma to record speeds never before seen in a regatta field on the Olympic circuit.
The 51 Trophy S.A.R. Princesa Sofía Mallorca is celebrated from April 1 to 9 under the joint organization of the Club Nàutic S’Arenal, the Club Marítimo San Antonio de la Playa, the Real Club Náutico de Palma, the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation, the Balearic Sailing Federation and World Sailing (the international sailing federation), with the support of the main Balearic public institutions.
All the information is available through the event website www.trofeoprincesasofia.org
