Team GBR at the 470 Europeans

Sacha Oswald reviews the form as racing gets underway

Team GBR sailors Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield will be looking to repeat their successful medal win from last year when they take part in the 2003 470 European Championships, which gets underway today in France.

The pairing are looking on good form after finishing second at the 'Challenge Andre Cornu', a two day event that was held in Brest prior to the Europeans. The other Team GBR pairing of Graham Vials and Bevis Field finished in fifth place overall and will be looking for a good result at their first European championships as a team.

Names to watch in the men's fleet will be defending European champion Nicolas Charbonnier sailing with Olivier Bausset of France, last years runners up and worlds silver medallists Andreas Kosmatopoulos/Kostas Trigonis of Greece and the 1996 Olympic gold medallists Eugeny Braslavets/Igor Matvienko from Ukraine.

In the women's fleet the competition will also be tough and the Team GBR sailors will be looking for good results prior to the world Championships in September, which will be the next opportunity to qualify Great Britain to attend the 2004 Olympic Games in the 470 women's discipline. Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson look on promising form, finishing first women at the 'Challenge Andre Cornu'. Helena Lucas sailing with Jenny Heeley and Josie Gibson, who has teamed up with new crew Sue Parkin, will also be hoping to finish the event with a good result.

The competition will come from defending European champions and world number one ranked sailors Sofia Bekatorou and Emilia Tsoulfa from Greece as well as world silver medallists and European runners up, Dutch sailors Lisa Westerhoff and Margriet Matthijsse.

The qualifying series for the European championship commences today through until 11 July, where six races will be sailed over the three days. The final series, where sailors will be split into gold, silver and bronze fleets, starts on the 12 and finishes on the 15 July, with eight races scheduled.