49er Europeans underway today

Team GBR's Sacha Oswald checks out the form

The battle between the British 49er teams will continue this week as they compete at the 49er European Championships in Spain.

Both Chris Draper sailing with the Sydney Olympic silver medallist Simon Hiscocks and Paul Brotherton sailing with Mark Asquith have been enjoying a great tussle this year as the teams battle it out for the all important Olympic spot to represent Great Britain in the 49er class next year in Athens.

So far this year, the results have been fairly even, although Draper and Hiscocks seem to have the edge after recently winning the last two Olympic class regattas in Holland and Germany. Brotherton and Asquith have never been far behind and with fellow British team mates Alister Richardson and Peter Greenhalgh also seeing a return to form after finishing sixth at Kiel week last month, this event will be a real test to see who is the dominating British team.

On the international front there will be a strong presence from the Spanish teams with the current world champions Iker Martinez/Xabier Fernandez looking to defend their European title. As well as the British pairings, they will have to fend of the challenges from their team mates Santiago Lopez Vazquez/Javier De La Plaza, as well as the world number one ranked sailors Rodion Luka/George Leonchuk of Ukraine.

The championship gets underway today hosted from the Real Club Nautico de Laredo with three days of qualifying races. The final series commences from Thursday 17 through to Saturday 19 July.

Entry List:

		Crew	Sponsor
1	AUS	Chris Nicholson/Gary Boyd	Grunding,Noakes Rigging;Ronstan
2	AUS	John Harris/Euan McNicol	Azzura Yachts
3	AUS	Mark Turnbull/Nick Partridge	SKM
4	AUS	Ben Tardrew/Marcus Tardrew	MPRE,Club Marine
5	AUT	Nico Delle-Karth/Nikolaus Resch	Musto,Toto
6	BEL	Yohann Blondiau/Pim Peters
7	BEL	Quentin Blondiau/Lionel Blondiau
8	BRA	Andre Otto Fonseca/Rodrigo Linck Duarte	Petrobrás
9	CAN	Andrew McCorquodale/Hunter Lowden	Rekord Marine
10	DEN	Jonatan Persson/Thomas Iversen	Elsam
11	DEN	Peter Hansen/Soren Hansen	Elsam
12	DEN	Martin Kirketerp/Dion Valente	Helly Hansen,Systematic
13	DEN	Emil Toft Nielsen/Simon Toft Nielsen	RK Plast,sporbashvest
14	DEN	Jonas Warrer/Peter Krüger Andersen	Farmor
15	DEN	Allan Norregaard/Klaus Naur	Jyske Bank
16	DEN	Michael Hestbek/Dennis Dengsø Andersen	Elsam/Mettler Toledo
17	ESP	Iker Martinez de Lizarduy Lizarribar/Xabier Fernandez	Telefónica Movistar
18	ESP	Juan Luis Paez/Carlos de Bricio	CANAL SUR ANDALUCIA
19	ESP	Santiago Lopez-Vazquez/Javier de la Plaza	TALGO
20	ESP	Federico Alonso Tellechea/Arturo Alonos Tellechea	FIAT
21	ESP	Alberto Padrón Torrent/Antonio Bonilla Paz	AUDI
22	ESP	Alejandro Dominguez Garcia/Jaime Martínez del Cerro	Urbis Nuevos Corrales
23	FIN	Jan Thorstrom/Matias Niemelainen	Roschier.com
24	FIN	Tom Lônnquist/Jacob Granquist
25	FRA	Vincent Joyeux/Frederic Moreau	Marine Nationale
26	FRA	Alexandre Monteau/Damien Guillon
27	FRA	Emmanuel Dyen/Yann Rocherieux
28	FRA	Marc Audineau/Stéphane Christidis	Antibes-Cagnes
29	FRA	Eric D'Hooghe/Cedric Chateau	Anneville-Ambourville
30	FRA	Nicolas Cau/Kévin Orlandi	Biscarrosse/Marlow
31	FRA	Gaël Moysan/Bruno Fournier	Ogygie
32	GBR	Alister Richardson/Peter Greenhalgh	Redbull
33	GBR	Andy Rice/Nick Murphy	Holt
34	GBR	Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks	UK sport lottery
35	GBR	Jerry Ibberson/Gareth Riley
36	GBR	Paul Brotherton/Mark Asquith	Team Tonic/Highland Heritage
37	GBR	Stevie Morrison/Ben Rhodes	Holt/Marlow
38	GBR	Mike Senior/Jonny Sinclair
39	GBR	Jon Emmet/Chris Tattersall	Harken & Typhoon
40	GBR	Richard Smith/Ian Turner
41	GBR	Andrew Hadfield/Olivier Vidal
42	GBR	Mark Dell/Paul Dell	E.I.T.S.
43	GBR	Paul Towers/Ben Remocker	Spootride
44	GBR	David Hall/Paul Constable	Ovinglon Boats
45	GBR	Alex Hopson/John Garth
46	GBR	Greg Barker/Diederik Bulters
47	GBR	Brian Wilson/Felix Thornton-Jones-
48	GBR	Steve Hopper/Matt Rainbow	E.I.T.S.
49	GBR	Jonny Coates/Charlie Muir
50	GBR	Ben McGrane/Jonathan Clegg	RWO
51	GER	Marcus Baur/Max Groy	Leading Laser
52	GER	Markus Steeg/Moritz Deml	Musto/Segelladen.de/Livos
53	GER	Jan-Peter Peckolt/Hannes Peckolt	Shannon
54	GER	Gabriel Wicke/Wolf Jeschonnek	Sprenger Musto ISE HYC
55	GRE	George Panagiotidis/Alfonso Panagiotidis
56	GRE	Athanasios Pachoumas/Vasilis Portosalte	Elin
57	HUN	Miklos Ujhelyi-Gaspar/ Matyas Majthenyi
58	HUN	Peter Hamrak/Balazs Sükösd	Citroën Wallis,Arcadom
59	IND	Malav Shroff/Madhavan Thirumalai
60	IRL	Tom Fitzpatrick/Fraser Brown	salesforce.com,Vhi healthcare
61	IRL	Marcus Spillane/Bob M'Carthy
62	ITA	Luca Modena/Manuel Modena	Smalticeram/Harken
63	ITA	Pietro Sibello/Gianfranco Sibello	TNT
64	ITA	Michele Mazzotti/Francesco Ivaldi	Gesturist
65	ITA	Tristano Vacondio/Gabbi Francesco	Wap,Sim,Megatel
66	NED	Jeroen van Catz/Constantijn Weber
67	NED	Pieter Lantermans/Pim Nieuwenhuis	Verduyn
68	NOR	Christoffer Sundby/Frode Bovim	Powersailing
69	NOR	Øyvind Peder Jahre/Frank Kirkeland
70	NOR	Aleksander Brekke/Carsten Hopstock	Sevan Marine
71	NZL	Mike Bassett/Kurt Riechellmann	CRC
72	POL	Pawel Kacprowski/Pawel Kuzmicki	HESTIA ATMAN
73	POL	Marcin Czajkonski/Krzysztof Kierkowski
74	RUS	Ilya Ermakov/Maxim Logoutenko
75	SUI	Anne-Katrin Weber/Stefan Braegger
76	SUI	Chris Rast/Christian Steiger	Ruf/Marinepool/Adidas
77	SUI	Jorg Hotz/Anja Hotz
78	SUI	hürch/Florian Hotz
79	SUI	Cedric Bart /Ueli Marti
80	SUI	Fabio Pérez/Martin Hofmann	Nautic Shop
81	SUI	Marcel Walser/Caspar Buettner	Gradmann
82	SUI	Cyril Wasmer/Patrick Wasmer
83	SWE	Magnus Gravare/Peter Mickos
84	SWE	Mattias Bengtsson/Niklas Bengtsson
85	SWE	Peter Backe/Anders Bengtsson	Pamil
86	SWE	Marcus Haas/ Christoffer Haas	Zimmer
87	SWE	Axel Netterlid/Jonas Lindberg	Sandå
88	TPE	Chu-Pin Yang/Chu-Fu Yang
89	UKR	Rodion Luka/George Leonchuk	ISA,Marine Pool,Ronstan
90	USA	Tim Wadlow/Pete Spaulding
91	USA	Andy Mack/Adam Lowry	Meridian Investments/Kaemon Polacied
92	USA	Dalton Bergan/Zack Maxam
93	USA	Ty Reed/Bora Gulari
94	USA	Michael Karas/Anthony Boscolo