British sailors aiming high at 470 Europeans
Written by RYA | 06 June 2013
Sophie Weguelin aims for European title defence with new crew
After a medal-winning start to the season with her new teammate, British sailor Sophie Weguelin will be hoping to continue her run of form and defend her title when the 470 Open European Championships get underway next week in Formia, Italy (10-15 June).
Weguelin and teammate Eilidh McIntyre are among the four British women’s boats and three men’s teams who will contest the six-day regatta on the west Italian coast, with Olympic silver medallists Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield, and Nick Rogers, now sailing with double World Champion Elliot Willis, also looking to cement their respective new partnerships with European success next week.
The 24-year-old Lymington sailor Weguelin clinched gold with Sophie Ainsworth at the last edition of the Europeans when they were held at Largs, Scotland, in July 2012.
With Ainsworth having now moved into the new 49erFX class, Weguelin joined forces with 19-year-old Eilidh McIntyre at the beginning of the year, with the duo having shown early promise by claiming two World Cup series medals at their first two events together in April, and narrowly missing out on a third straight podium spot at the EUROSAF circuit event in Holland last month.
Weguelin and McIntyre, who is the daughter of 1988 Star class Olympic Champion Mike McIntyre, will line up with 42 other women’s teams including New Zealand’s 2012 Olympic gold medallists Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie and the Brazilian world number ones Fernanda Oliveira and Ana Barbachan who, although ineligible for the European title, will still challenge for overall event honours.
In the 76-boat men’s event, Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield will be looking to build on the successful start to their Rio campaign at what will be their third event together. They claimed bronze at their first as a duo at the Palma World Cup in April, and Patience has claimed silverware at the last two European Championships he’s competed at – a silver in 2011 and bronze in 2010, both with his former teammate Stuart Bithell.
Nick Rogers and Elliot Willis will be in action for just the second time as a new team after making their racing debut at the Hyeres World Cup at the end of April. They finished 16th at their maiden event, with these European Championships and the EUROSAF regatta in Kiel, Germany, later this month as building blocks towards the year’s peak event of the World Championships in August.
Likely rivals for the men’s European crown will include Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic, and the Greek pairing of Mantis Panagiotis and Pavlos Kagialis, while Australia’s Olympic gold medallist Mat Belcher with Will Ryan, and the Argentinian 2012 Games bronze medallists Lucas Calabrese and Juan de la Fuente will challenge for overall event honours.
Racing at the 470 Open European Championships gets underway on Monday 10 June, with an 11-race series scheduled before the final medal races for the top eight boats on Saturday 15 June.
Follow the event at
http://europeans.470.org with race updates on the British team sailors throughout the week on Twitter @BritishSailing