Five Israeli sailing teams began their journey today (Monday) at the 470 World Championships, which are being held in Wilmora, Portugal. The mixed team of Gil Cohen and Noam Materiali opened the competition well, with first place at the end of the first day, after winning two out of three cruises. The other two teams involved, Noa Lasri and Tal Sadeh as well as Saar Tamir and Nitai Hasson, finished the first day in sixth and tenth places, respectively.
Eran Sela, who coaches the 470 mixed in the competition: “This is a great way to open the first competition in 470 mixed. All the Israeli teams showed high ability and screwed in the top ten places. Gil and Noam showed their dominance from the first moment and we are already looking forward to the championship.” This is the first international competition for the 470 mixed model (woman and man), which will become Olympic in Paris 2024.
Noya Baram and Shachar Tibi’s women’s team also started the first day of cruises with a strong cruise in which they finished in third place, in the second and third cruises they finished in seventh place. These results placed them in fifth place overall at the end of the day. Israel already has the guaranteed ticket to the Olympics in the 470 model for women, and Noya and Shachar are expected to be the team that represented us in Tokyo.
The men’s team, Maor Abu and Yoav Rose, who struggled in this championship on the Olympic criterion for Tokyo, started the cruising day not well, but ended up in eighth place, with a strong third cruising, in which they finished in fourth place. In this championship, a single ticket will be awarded to Tokyo, one of the countries that have not yet won it, and the Israeli team will have to beat teams from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Switzerland and Ukraine, who also do not yet have representation in the Olympics.
In parallel with the 470 World Championships, the European Championship cruises on RSX surfboards will begin tomorrow at the same location.
