British windsurfer Sam Sills scooped a silver medal in a thrilling finale to the first Olympic class regatta of 2023.

Sills, 29, from Launceston in Cornwall, dominated the opening round of the iQFOiL Games in Lanzarote but had to settle for second after losing out to Poland’s Pawel Tarnowski in a dramatic winner-takes-all medal race.

Sills earned an automatic spot in the event finale having won nine of the 15 races, but the racing format of the iQFOiL class – which will make its debut at Paris 2024 – sees the top three riders go head-to-head on equal standings to determine the final podium positions.

Combined with the incredible speeds of the iQFOiL windsurfers the format makes for tense and exciting viewing – but for the athletes the jeopardy is highly increased.

In an incredible chain of events, Sills and Tarnowski were neck and neck as they hurtled towards the finish, before both crashed just metres short of the line.

Tarnowski was quickest to get back up on his board, crossing the line to take first place and the event win.

Frenchman Nicolas Goyard, the third athlete in the race, also passed Sills but in a show of sportsmanship stopped short of the line to allow Sills to take silver.

“It was so intense,” said Sills, who was competing in a medal race for the first time. “Everything happened so fast, it’s honestly still a blur. I think it’s going to take me a bit of time to process, but it was very extreme, very intense and a lot of fun.”

Sills, who lives in Portland, Dorset, home of the British Sailing Team, said he was happy to have made the podium in his first outing of 2023, a crucial year for the British Sailing Team as it looks to pick its squad for Paris 2024.

“It’s amazing to be in this position with just a year and a half until the Olympics,” Sills added.

“This result is another stepping stone towards the goal of an Olympic gold medal in Paris, and I’m just going to keep pushing hard. This result feels like a very special moment in my career and I’ll look back on it with a lot of happy memories.”

There were notable British performances across the fleets.

Scottish athlete Andy Brown made it to the quarter finals in the 84-strong men’s fleet, finishing 10th overall, while Sills’ fellow Cornishman Finn Hawkins was 18th.

In the women’s fleet fellow Scot Islay Watson was seventh, British Sailing Squad athlete Alice Read from Oxford was 13th and Saskia Sills, Sam’s sister, came home 18th from 66 athletes.

The British Sailing Team will field athletes in the Lanzarote International Regatta later this month before turning its attention to the Princess Sofia Regatta in early April.

Ireland’s Olympic sailing team has started the New Year with a fair wind in its sails, having welcomed a new addition to its fleet of commercial vehicles in the shape of a new Mercedes-Benz Vito van.

The second of its kind to be added to the fleet, the Vito will soon be put through its paces transporting the team’s boats and equipment to international training camps and competitions throughout Europe in destinations such as Portugal, Italy and, significantly, the Olympic sailing venue of Marseille.

No stranger to the Irish sailing community, Mercedes-Benz has supported a number of water sport activities over the years, most notably in its sponsorship of Ireland’s Olympic medal-winning sailor Annalise Murphy in her preparations for the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games.

Fittingly, the predominant user of this new vehicle will be Howth Yacht Club’s Eve McMahon, the current Youth World Champion in Murphy’s old class the ILCA 6 (formerly Laser Radial) who is hotly tipped for Olympic success of her own, at Paris 2024 and beyond.

Registration and the Notice of Race are now available for 2023’s French Olympic Week, the 54th Semaine Olympique Française de Hyères - TPM, which takes place 22-29 April.

The world’s best athletes will be present on the Côte d’Azur just over a year before Paris 2024, with more than 700 competitors expected from over 50 nations.

Organised by the Fédération Française de Voile (French Sailing Federation), with the support of the city of Hyères and the Toulon Provence Méditerranée community, French Olympic Week is a historic sailing regatta on an international scale.

And the 2023 edition promises to be bigger than ever, with organisers setting up a sixth race zone to accommodate the large numbers of racers.

SOF event director Ed Russo said: “World Sailing has decided that in 2024 the SOF will be the ‘last chance regatta’, ie the last opportunity for athletes to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024. Many athletes will be present this year in preparation for the 2024 event.”

The Organising Committee of the Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofía Mallorca has just published the Notice of Race for the showcase 52nd edition of the Spanish Olympic classes regatta, which will be held from 31st March to 8th April on the Bay of Palma. The regatta will be the first scoring event of the Sailing World Cup 2023.

Club Nàutic S’Arenal

The 52nd edition of the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca is officially in motion. The publication of the Notice of Race is one starting signal for the first major regatta for combined Olympic classes in 2023. Once again, it will be jointly organised by the Real Club Náutico de Palma, the Club Náutic S'Arenal, the Club Marítimo San Antonio de la Playa, the Federación Balear de Vela and the Real Federación Española de Vela.

Javier Zaynoun, director of the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca, explains, "The publication of the Notice of Race in effect opens the entry process. We look forwards to welcoming all the classes that make up the current Olympic roster. We expect an excellent level of participation, as 2023 is a pre-Olympic year and the Sofia is the first big regatta of the season. Last year we welcomed 840 boats and nearly 1,100 sailors hosted over eight race courses, a huge undertaking that would be impossible without the commitment and involvement of all the people working on the event. Once again this year, we are grateful for the support of institutions and sponsors, but especially for the trust placed in us by the sailors. It is an enormous responsibility and we work with the hope of meeting their expectations."

The Notice of Race for the 52nd Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca is available on the official website of the regatta (www.trofeoprincesasofia.org).

The ten classes of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

For the second consecutive edition, the Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca is mustering the ten classes that will compete in the next Olympic Games in Paris. The Bay of Palma will once again host racing for the women's ILCA 6, 49er FX, IQ Foil and Formula Kite categories and the men's ILCA 7, 49er, IQ Foil and Formula Kite and the mixed 470 and Nacra 17. The competition will take place between Monday, 3rd April and Saturday, 8th April, when the Medal Races and Medal Series (depending on the class) will be held, the decisive phases to find the best in each class, the champions of the 52nd Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca.

First meeting of the Sailing World Cup 2023

The 52nd Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca will be the first qualifying regatta for the Sailing World Cup 2023. This year, the world cup for the Olympic classes will comprise the four most prestigious regattas on the international calendar. The Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca will be followed by the Semaine Olympique Française (22 to 29 April) in France, the Dutch Allianz Regatta (31 May to 4 June) and Germany’s Kieler Woche (17 to 25 June). The Spanish event was returned to the prestigious World Cup calendar last year and has been confirmed by the international federation (World Sailing) to form part of the Sailing World Cup programme until at least 2024.

The Organising Committee is already working to ensure that crews and technical staff from the different federations are at home in Mallorca, especially those who arrive on the island weeks in advance to take advantage of the island's excellent sailing conditions in their Olympic preparation. Once again this year, all the participants are invited to compete in the Mallorca Sailing Center Regatta, a training regatta to be held in the Bay of Palma between the 9th and 12th of March.

The 52 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca has the backing of World Sailing and the main Balearic public institutions.

The RYA has released its selection policy for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

As Britain’s national governing body (NGB) for sailing, the RYA works with the British Olympic Association (BOA) to determine the athletes who will represent Team GB at the Olympics.

The selection policy sets out the criteria for athletes aspiring to compete for Team GB in the Paris 2024 sailing competition.

The policy is confidential and, as such, can only be accessed through a secure online portal. It will only be available to those eligible to compete for Team GB.

To request access, the applicant must contact Alex Wardall, the RYA’s Olympic Operations Manager.

The application process will close at 5 pm on Wednesday, 01 February 2023.

Howth Yacht Club’s Aoife Hopkins has announced her retirement from Olympic campaigning.

The ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) sailor and former U21 European Champion had been readying for the Paris 2024 qualifying campaign, following the disappointment of missing out on Ireland’s sole spot at the Tokyo 2020 games last year.

Only this past summer it was announced that 23-year-old Hopkins would share with fellow HYC prospect Eve McMahon in The Olympic Federation of Ireland Paris Scholarships fund for their Olympic preparations.

Sailing since she was nine years old and well regarded as one of Ireland’s top sailors, Hopkins achieved her personal best result when she placed 17th overall at the 2021 ILCA 6 World Championships in Oman, where she also scored one of two World Championship race wins in her career.

Before that, arguably her biggest highlight was her win at the U21 Europeans in 2017 — just weeks after sitting her Leaving Cert — and that same year she graduated to the senior Irish Sailing Team.

Hopkins balanced sailing with her studies for a maths degree over the subsequent years, and together with Aisling Keller helped secure Ireland’s single qualification place for the ILCA 6 at Tokyo 2020 during the class Worlds in Japan in 2019.

However, Hopkins’ hopes of securing that spot were dashed when the following summer’s Olympic trials were cut short in the early months of the COVID pandemic, and Rio 2016 silver medallist Annalise Murphy was selected instead.

Aoife Hopkins had been gearing up for the Paris 2024 qualification campaign after the disappointment of Ireland’s Tokyo 2020 selection

At the time, both Keller and Hopkins expressed their dismay, with the latter saying: "I really can’t understand the decision not to continue with the trials. I am utterly and completely devastated.”

Hopkins did not appeal the decision by Irish Sailing and took some time out to reassess her situation.

The young sailor missed the Irish ILCA 6 title nationals on a tie break in Kerry in August but did lift the ladies' salver. Her most recent victory on the water was as helm of the J80 Ladies of the Kite, leading a team of under-25s to the Sportsboat title at last month’s Women at the Helm regatta.

Aoife (second from left) among the winners with the ILCA 6 Ladies' Salver in Tralee in August

Before the event, Hopkins said: “Events like these are super important for women in sport and women in sailing … and it’s brilliant to see the turn out today. This is the one event of the year when the women’s changing rooms are busier than the men’s!

"It gives women the opportunity to helm boats that they might not have and to actually showcase their skills and what they can do because it’s not really about capabilities, it’s about opportunities.”

Afloat.ie wishes Aoife Hopkins the very best in her future endeavours.

Following last week's disappointing outcome to the 49er World Championship in Nova Scotia where both Irish crews missed Gold fleet qualification, the final results were Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) with Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) finishing seventh in the Silver fleet (32nd overall) while team-mates Seafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan (Royal Cork YC) were 18th in (42nd overall) and included a race win on the final day.

Both Irish skiffs will next compete in the test event at The Hague at the end of the month in preparation for next Summer's combined World Sailing Championships, an important qualification regatta for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Bart Lambriex with Floris Van de Werken of The Netherlands, who are training partners with Dickson and Waddilove, retained their world title in Canada.

After The Hague, the first major competition of the 2023 season is at the Princess Sofia World Cup of Sailing regatta in Mallorca in March.

Meanwhile, Dun Laoghaire's Saskia Tidey from the Royal Irish Yacht Club finished in the top ten of the women's 49er FX division, sailing with Freya Black for Team GB. The new combination had a race win in their 16-race scoresheet to be ninth overall in a fleet of 36.

With gusts above 30 knots and spinning rain squalls, the 2022 49er and FX European Championships kicked off in Aarhus with all the top teams taking lessons from some new crews; including Ireland.

In an exciting start, both the Irish boats, who are each aiming to represent Ireland in the single place at the Paris 2024 Olympics, led their opening races in their respective flights. 

Seafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan (Royal Cork YC) went on to win the first race of the championship but Tokyo 2020 reps Robert Dickson (Howth YC) and Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) counted a UFD score for a premature start.

Overall after three races, the Royal Cork Pair are lying 24th in the 88-boat fleet counting 1, 14, and 11 from the first three races. Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove counted UFD, 11 and 13 to be 53rd.

2021 World Champions, Bart Lambriex with Floris van der Werken (NED), set the standard with a 3, 2, 1 including a comeback from a bad start, and a comeback from a mid-pack first lap to show they can move through the fleet when necessary. Each of their comebacks came by jumping into shifts to pass packs and they had enough speed to make the boat-on-boat encounters fall in their favour.

Two further days of qualification racing will decide the split for Gold fleet racing that begins on Friday ahead of a medal race on Sunday afternoon for the best ten crews.

Results here

Laser dinghy sailor Eve McMahon of Howth Yacht Club now leads at the Youth ILCA 6/Laser European Championships going into the last day of racing in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Ten races have been sailed with significant changes in the top of the rankings on the penultimate day.

The current Irish ILCA6 youth world champion is now on the cusp of a Youth ILCA6 Europeans title with a six-point advantage going into Wednesday's fifth day and final two races to decide the new 2022 EurILCA 6 Youth European champions.

McMahon scored a 3, 3 to become the new women’s overall leader with 33 points, followed by Emma Mattivi ITA (21-1) and Petra Marendic CRO (1-9) with 45 and 49 points respectively.

The overnight leader Roos Wind NED (14-36) is ranked now fourth overall with 50.

Claudia Adan Lledo ESP (4-5) is fifth with 63.

Conditions were once again sunny and hot, with the winds varying from 8-10 knots.

Luke Turvey

McMahon's clubmate Luke Turvey dropped from tenth to 14th place in the Boys event but could still regain places in today's final rounds.

Results here

Two Howth Yacht Club Olympic campaigners will share in The Olympic Federation of Ireland Paris Scholarships fund, as preparations are already underway for the Summer Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

Dublin's ILCA 6/Laser Radial campaigners Aoife Hopkins and Irish Sailor of the Year Eve McMahon - who begins her Leaving Certificate examinations this morning - will receive $15,000 each from the Federation.

A total pot of $350,000 will be distributed to Olympic hopefuls with the Women’s Hockey team awarded the team grant of $100,000. The fifteen individual grants to a total of $250,000 were awarded to athletes from twelve sports.

The funding for the grants is primarily provided through a combination of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Olympic Solidarity programme funding and OFI funding, split $250,000 from the IOC and the remaining $100,000 from the OFI to allow for a greater number of scholarship awards in Ireland.

Aoife Hopkins

The scholarships aim to support the athletes in their preparation for Paris, and to assist on the qualification journey. Athletes were nominated by the national federations and are representative of a mix of Olympians targeting a second Games, and athletes targeting an Olympic debut.

Making the announcement, Team Ireland Chef de Mission for the Paris Olympic Games, Gavin Noble, said,

“Thirty-five individual nominations were received from nineteen member sports for the Paris Scholarship fund, and today we are delighted to formally announce our Paris scholars and of course our support of the women’s hockey team. In the Tokyo cycle, twelve scholarships were awarded, and from those nine athletes qualified for the Games, with two finalists in the Tokyo Olympics. Naturally, we are aiming to build on those results. Through the support of the International Olympic Committee Solidarity Fund, and with the additional backing of Permanent TSB, Allianz and Deloitte, we are able to fund more athletes, to a higher level than ever before, and it is very much part of our performance and commercial strategy that we continue to move in this direction.”

Details of all recipients are below:

TEAM GRANT - $100,000

Women’s Hockey Team

The Women’s Hockey Team were awarded the team grant of $100,000 to assist with their preparations towards Paris 2024. The team consists of both experienced players who competed in the Tokyo Olympics, and emerging talent looking to make their Olympic debut in Paris.

INDIVIDUAL GRANTS – $15,000 PER PERSON