· This weekend the Iberian Championship of the 2.4mR Class – Vitaldent Adapted Sailing Regatta, of the IV Iberdrola Paralympic Sailing Circuit is celebrated
· Among the participants will be the Sevillian sailor Arturo Montes, the Spanish representative at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro
· The five-time champion of Spain Rafa Andarias and also a member of the 2016 Olympic team Borja Melgarejo will be other competitors
The Monte Real Club de Yates brings together this weekend in Baiona the elite of Spanish Paralympic sailing in the Iberian Championship of the 2.4mR Class – Vitaldent Adapted Sailing Regatta, a competition included in the IV Iberdrola Paralympic Sailing Circuit.
Among the participants will be Arturo Montes, Spanish representative at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympic Games. The Sevillian athlete, who lost a leg in an accident after being run over by a boat while swimming, is currently one of the most outstanding sailors on the peninsular nautical scene.
Montes, from the Real Club Marítimo y de Tenis de Punta Umbría, arrives in Baiona occupying second place in the IV Iberdrola Circuit behind Rafa Andarias, another of the greats of the 2.4mR Class in Spain. With a physical disability that affects his lower limbs, the man from Alicante, from the Jávea Yacht Club, can boast of having achieved five Spanish championships at the age of 26. Last May, he also finished ninth in the World Championship held in Holland.
Another of the outstanding athletes who will compete in the Vitaldent Adapted Sailing Regatta of Monte Real is the Murcian Antonio Maestre, from the Royal Regatta Club of Cartagena, who sails with a paralysis in his left arm. Andalusian Borja Melgarejo, teammate of Arturo Montes at the Real Club Marítimo y de Tenis de Punta Umbría and on the Rio 2016 Olympic team, will also be in Baiona this weekend.
The Iberian Championship of the 2.4mR Class that the Monte Real Club de Yates organizes by delegation of the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation and with the collaboration of the Galician and Portuguese Sailing Federations begins this Friday with a series of training regattas in which the athletes, coming from different parts of Spain and Portugal, will be able to take a first contact with the waters of the Bay of Baiona.
In the Atlantic, unlike the Mediterranean, the waves and the tides take on a very special role and are often decisive for the execution of the tests. Hence the importance of the training day that takes place prior to the start of the championship, so that the sailors can get used to the regatta field.
After today’s initial regattas, a skippers’ meeting and a fellowship dinner, the competition itself will begin tomorrow, Saturday at noon, with the first scoring races, and will end on Sunday with the final tests and the award ceremony, which will be held at five in the afternoon at the facilities of the Baionese club.
In the Iberian Championship that takes place this weekend, the participants sail in an individual boat of 4.20 meters in length, in which the sailor sits, leaving his head a few centimeters from the water. The 2.4mR class is a Paralympic modality since the Olympic Games held in 2000 in Sydney.
