Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/434696
22 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2014 Sport SAILING 137 Young Sailors Challenge for Malta Award WILFRED SULTANA 137 young sailors from 9 countries will be contesting the 15th Edition of the Optimists Class EUROMED Malta Championship to be held this week between the 19th and the 22nd December. Mellieha Bay is once again the Championship's racing arena with the Maxima Lido hosting the race office and the launching area of the Event. The 4-day event will be contested by both male and female young sail- ors coming from Cyprus, Ireland, Russia, Spain, Italy, United King- dom, Greece, Romania and Malta. Ireland, Spain and Greece are new- comers to the Malta event. The big- gest three foreign contingents hail from Sicily with 29 sailors, Ireland with 16 sailors, and Russia with 14 sailors while the Maltese contin- gent is made up of 40 sailors. "We train every weekend throughout the year but increase our training in the last 3 weeks prior the Event. Some of our sail- ors even join extra workouts given by foreign coaches the week be- fore Euromed. I believe we have 5 very strong sailors who all stand a chance of placing, but this all de- pends on the weather conditions and how well the foreign competi- tors perform on the days of the event ", remarked Jean Paul Fleri Soler, coach at the Malta Young Sailors Club. Further to the MYSC, the Birzebbuga Sailing Club is the other local club having also sailors in EUROMED 2014. The Malta Championship is also an attraction to Laser dinghy sail- ors where participation is not con- strained by an age limit. The par- ticipants will be split up into five categories namely the Optimist Cadet Class, the Optimist Open Class, the Optimist Novice Class and two Laser Dinghy Classes - Laser Radial Class and Laser 4.7 Class. 9 races, with 7 to count, will make up the racing programme of the 4-day Championship organised by the Malta Young Sailors Club with the cooperation of the Kunsill Mal- ti għall-iSport and the Mellieħa Local Council and is held under the patronage of the Malta Sailing Fed- eration. The Seabank Resort+Spa in Mellieha is the official hotel of Euromed 2014. The multinational young sailors enjoy competing in EuroMed during their Christmas holidays - definitively an on-growing sport-tourism international attraction