Can’t Tell the Players without a Program

Over 540 sailors have gathered for the second round of the 2018 World Cup Series on January 23 to 28 in Miami, FL. As an annual circuit of Olympic sailing for elite and professional sailors, this is a rare opportunity for North American sailors to be immersed amid a high level Olympic-style event.

Over 50 nations have traveled to compete in some or all of the ten Olympic events on Biscayne Bay. With light winds anticipated for the first day of racing, the five days that follow will test conditioning with forecasted winds in the high teens and twenties.

While several of the medalists from Rio 2016 Olympics have retired, and others are competing in the Volvo Ocean Race, many have come to Miami to train and test their fitness before the European season gets started.

Here are the Rio medalists competing in 2018 World Cup Series Miami:

Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470 (37 entrants)
Bronze – Panagiotis Mantis/ Pavlos Kagialis, Greece

Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470 (33 entrants)
Gold – Hannah Mills/ Eilidh McIntyre, Great Britain
Note: Hannah won gold with Saskia Clark.

Heavyweight Men’s One Person Dinghy – Finn (26 entrants)
Gold – Giles Scott, Great Britain
Bronze – Caleb Paine, United States

Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser (70 entrants)
Gold – Tom Burton, Australia
Silver – Tonči Stipanović, Croatia
Bronze – Sam Meech, New Zealand

Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial (67 entrants)
Bronze – Anne-Marie Rindom, Denmark

Men’s Skiff – 49er (38 entrants)
No medalists

Women’s Skiff – 49erFX (21 entrants)
No medalists

Men’s Windsurfer – RS:X (48 entrants)
Gold – Dorian van Rijsselberghe, Netherlands
Bronze – Pierre Le Coq, France

Women’s Windsurfer – RS:X (35 entrants)
Bronze – Stefania Elfutina, Russia

Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17 (19 entrants)
Gold – Santiago Lange/ Cecilia Carranza Saroli, Argentina
Silver – Jason Waterhouse/ Lisa Darmanin, Australia
Bronze – Thomas Zajac/ Barbara Matz, Austria (AUT)
Note: Thomas won bronze with Tanja Frank.

Racing will commence on Tuesday January 23 at 11:00 local time.

The format for each Olympic event will be an opening series with the top ten advancing to the medal competition. Live Medal Races on Saturday and Sunday, January 27 and 28, will bring the week to a close before the series heads to Hyères, France in April.

Event details – Entry list – Tracking – Facebook

Saturday (Jan 27) Medal Races – RS:X, 49er, 49erFX, Nacra 17

Sunday (Jan 28) Medal Races – 470, Finn, Laser, Laser Radial

The World Cup Series is an annual circuit of Olympic sailing for elite and professional sailors, and a key touchpoint for fans and media to connect to the sport of sailing and develop support for athletes on their road to Tokyo 2020 and beyond. Over 2,000 of the world’s leading sailors, representing 75 nations, have competed in the World Cup Series since its inception in 2008.

2017/2018 World Cup Series
October 17-22, 2017 – World Cup Series #1 – Gamagori, Japan
January 21-28, 2018 – World Cup Series #2 – Miami, USA
April 22-29, 2018 – World Cup Series #3 – Hyères, France
June 3-10, 2018 – World Cup Series Final – Marseille, France

Source: World Sailing