An impressive selection of the world’s best Olympic sailors will be heading to Melbourne this December after confirming their entry to the 2019 Finn Gold Cup, the World Championships of the Olympic Finn Class. The early entry period for the 2019 Finn Gold Cup will be closing at the end of October with the current list of sailors, who have already committed to the event, currently representing 13 countries and promising a world-class event six months out from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The 64th Finn Gold Cup will run from 13 to 21 December 2019 out of Royal Brighton Yacht Club and will also double-up as the Oceania Olympic qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The event will be the final chance for Australia’s Finn sailors to secure Australia the continental Oceania spot as well as to impress selectors with the pointy end of Olympic selection coming up.
Already qualified and selected for Tokyo 2020 is current Finn world #2 and winner of the recent world cup series opener in Enoshima, Japan, Nicholas Heiner from the Netherlands, who spearheads the current entry list. Heiner returns to Port Phillip after winning Sail Melbourne last year.
He will be joined by the current world number three from Norway Anders Pedersen, the winner of the “Ready Steady Tokyo” test event Zsombor Berecz from Hungary as well as New Zealand’s world-class Finn duo of Andy Maloney and Josh Junior.
While Josh Junior already secured New Zealand the country quota spot for Tokyo 2020 at the world championships in 2018, it is yet to be decided who will be representing New Zealand at the Games next year and the Kiwi pair will continue their selection battle on Port Phillip in December.
Only one sailor per country will be able to compete at Tokyo 2020 and also host-country Japan is yet to decide, who will be representing the nation in the Finn with three Japanese Finn sailors to contest the Gold Cup in Melbourne.
“We are very excited to see such a stellar-line up for the 2019 Finn Gold Cup with three weeks to go before entries close. It’s also great to get the recognition for our events from our returning Melbourne competitors like Nicholas Heiner and our Kiwi neighbours Andy Maloney and Josh Junior and many more," event chairman Steve Ingram said.
"We are looking forward to hosting sailors from around the world again this year and will make sure to offer them the best racing and training environment during our Australia summer as they prepare for Tokyo next year.
"The event will also offer the brilliant opportunity for our strong Australian Finn class to take on the world’s best Finn sailors on home waters” event chairman Steve Ingram added.
In other entries so far, Melbourne local Finn sailor Oliver Tweddell will be making his return to the race scene following injury and will be joined amongst others by dual Olympian Jonathan Lobert from France, as well as Germany’s Max Kohlhoff and USA’s Luke Muller.
So far Finn sailors from Australia, Canada, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and USA will be contesting the event.
While 15 of the 19 country spots for Tokyo have already been distributed and only one spot each is still remaining for the continents of Oceania, Europe, North America and South America, final athlete selection is still open across most countries and the Finn Gold Cup will be a welcome chance to race against the world’s best.
Entries for the 2019 Finn Gold Cup close 30 October 2019 and can be made on the event website here: http://2019.finngoldcup.org/online-entry-view-entry
The world class event kicks off a series of Olympic sailing events on Port Phillip Bay with the Royal Brighton Yacht Club also hosting the 2020 Sail Melbourne International regatta in January (17-21 January 2020). Sail Melbourne International is open to all Olympic sailing classes and the world’s best Finn sailors are expected to contest both events to make the most of Australia’s summer in preparation for the 2020 Olympic sailing season.
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