Portimão Formula Windsurfing World Championships 2008 will concentrate the elite of worldwide windsurfing in Portugal, from the 8th to the 14th September. This ISAF [International Sailing Federation] event joins the best athletes from the 5 continents, to award the best of them the titles of World Champion both in the Men and Women leagues.
At present, the list of participants in these Championships shows the top sailors in the world. Names such as Steve Allen from Australia [World Formula Champion 2006], Ross Williams from UK [Europe Formula Champion], Wojtek Brzozowski from Poland [with several World Champion titles], Willhelm Schurmann from Brazil [Pan-American Champion and #2 of the world rankings], Gonzalo Costa Hoevel from Argentina [the winner of the last Grand Prix that took place in Portugal]… to mention just a few of the brightest stars of this sport’s universe. In the women’s league, the current World Champion – Australian Allison Shreeve – is already coming to Portimão, where besides defending her title, she will show the advantages of the new olympic project.
Also many of the most important Olympic sailors, in Qingdao, China, have already asked IWA [International Windsurfing Association] how to participate in these very special World Champions, where we can observe the performance of the new board – aspiring candidate to be the next 2012 official Olympic windsufing board. The event Portimão Formula Windsurfing World Championships 2008 will be the stage where all the attentions from the highest entities that regulate the Olympic sport will be focused, once that the Formula Windsurfing – One Design is the best project to integrate the next Olympic games.
With the excellence of this event, the Organizing Committee is leaded by Manuel da Luz [President of the City Hall of Portimão] and assisted by Luís Carito [President of Expoarade, EM], João Pedro Cascais [President of the CA of the Portuguese Sailing Federation], José Guimarães [President of Overpower Club] and Ceri Williams [President of the Class]… All of them are developing an exemplary work for the success of the event in Portugal.
The International Jury is presided by Pedro Rodrigues – an ISAF jury with a lot of experience in the area – who will work with fellow jury members Andrus Polski from Estonia, Walter Mielke from Germany, César Sanz from Spain and Abel Nunes from Portugal. This Committee is responsible for interpreting and applying the regulations in order to assure the sportive truth.
The Regatta Committee will be presided by Claudio Alessandrello from Italy, who will assure the technical management of the regattas, as well as the team coordination of the markers, measurers, scorers and beach marshals. His most direct collaborators are the Race Officers Manuel Marques and Pedro Guimarães from Portugal, Thomas Michaelis from Germany, and Krysztof Jaszczynski from Poland.
In the technical and organizational area, the Overpower Club will be the LOA [Local Organizer Authority], by delegation of IWA [International Windsurfing Association], FPV [Portuguese Sailing Federation] and ISAF [International Sailing Federation].
José Guimarães [President of Overpower Club], the local organizer, doesn’t hide his satisfaction, stating: “We are very happy that IWA has trusted us the organization of its major event… we promise to do everything in order to assure the success of these Championships.” Portugal sure can be proud of having been designated as the organizer of such an important event, for these World Championships always count with numerous contestants from countries that are influent within this sport.
Portimão, where the event will take place, is the heaven for the practice of nautical sports. It has 8km of beach and the wind conditions are normally side off-shore or off-shore of constant 12 to 20 knots. The water temperature is about 22ºC and the air temperature is of around 25ºC. Besides the undeniable connection of this city to the sea, the visitors will be able to find here the most emblematic nautical events: World Jetski Championships, World Kitesurfing Championship, Med Cup Trophy, World F1 Powerboat Championship, among others.
Welcoming this event in Portugal is the Portimão City Hall, as main sponsor, the official sponsors being ExpoArade, EM and the Pestana Group – Hotels & Resorts. NISSAN has just joined this initiative, with the position “Official Event Automobile”, participating simultaneously and in an active way with the Navara’s- a sportive 4×4 utility with all the power the organization needs in its demanding movement necessities. This official sponsor will also provide for two powerful boats that will take the guests to the surroundings of the Regatta Area, so that they can watch closely all the strategies of the competing athletes.
The TV coverage, production and distribution is of the responsibility of Sail.TV, that will provide the main worldwide broadcasters with images, and TV networks Red Handed – Television and SIC Radical – Curto Circuito, both official television networks. National and International print media associated to the event are Maxmen, Focus and Boa Forma, while the official radio is Best Rock FM. The sports website www.conquilha.com will have all the information concerning the event available for all the Portuguese speaking community [of about 230 million people].
Official websites: www.overpower.net/portimao_worldchamps08 www.formulawindsurfing.org www.internationalwindsurfing.com
During the event, there will be daily press releases available in the most relevant languages, as well as photos, video images with professional quality for internet and TV. These can be requested to our Press Center.
