· The Monte Real Yacht Club hosted this Saturday the Terras Gauda National Sailing Awards 2015 – 2016 award ceremony
· The Olympians Támara Echegoyen and Berta Betanzos, the Paralympian Arturo Montes, the Canarian Rayco Tabares or ABANCA were some of the winners
· The winners took as a trophy a reproduction of the Monte Real signal mast that bears the name of its historic president Rafael Olmedo
Once again this year, the Monte Real Yacht Club of Bayonne hosted the award ceremony for the Terras Gauda National Sailing Awards, awards that recognize the work carried out by different people, companies and institutions in favor of the world of sailing.
The Olympians Támara Echegoyen and Berta Betanzos, world champions in the 49erFX class and Olympic diploma at the Rio 2016 Games, undoubtedly received the great ovation of the night. The Ourense and the Cantabrian received the award for the best female regatta team from the president of Bodegas Terras Gauda, José María Fonseca Moretón, and the president of the Monte Real Yacht Club, José Luis Álvarez, and received applause from the most than half a thousand attendees at the gala. They also brought their coach, Pepe Lis from Buenos Aires, to the stage, to whom they dedicated their award for being, they said, a fundamental part of the successes achieved.
Another of the Olympians awarded tonight in Baiona was Sevillian Arturo Montes, who was given the award for the best Paralympic athlete of the year. The sailor was unable to attend the gala because he was training in Rio, where he will compete in a few days in the 2.4mR class, and the president of the naval regatta commission of the Naval Military School of Marin, Vicente Rubio, presented him of the award to the delegate of the 2.4mR class, Luis de Mira, who collected it and thanked on behalf of Montes.
The Catalan shipowner, Rafael Carbonell, also passed the stage of the gala, receiving from the Mayor of Baiona, Ángel Rodal, and on behalf of his entire crew, the prize for the best boat, the Rats on Fire, winner of seven Trophies Conde de Godó and four King’s Cups, in addition to several Spanish and World Championships.
The vice president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, was in charge of awarding the Terras Gauda National Sailing Award to the best skipper, which went to Rayco Tabares. The Lanzarote native, barely 32 years old, wrote his name in the history of sailing in Spain in 2016, having won his third world championship in the J80 class.
ABANCA and MARCA were the two distinguished companies of the night. The Galician bank received the award for the best sponsor of the year for its commitment to grassroots sailing, through the support it provides to numerous sailing schools, clubs and organizations related to nautical activity. The director of ABANCA’s commercial network, Gabriel González, collected the award from the General Secretary for Sports of the Xunta de Galicia, José Ramón Lete.
The sports communication group MARCA, the undisputed leader of the sports press in Spain, won the Mariano Aguado Communication Award, which was collected by the deputy director of the newspaper, Gerardo Riquelme. This year’s Terras Gauda National Sailing Awards wanted to recognize the work of the Editorial Unit header to bring the competitions and all the latest sailing news to its more than two million three hundred thousand readers.
All the winners received as a trophy a reproduction of the signal mast of the Monte Real Yacht Club, which bears the name of the person who was president of the entity for more than forty years, Mr. Rafael Olmedo Limeses, who died in 2015 at the age of 99. age.
At the end of the National Sailing Awards ceremony, once again sponsored by Bodegas Terras Gauda, and after a seafood dinner at Monte Real, attendees were able to enjoy a party with fireworks.
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