Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube, the Team GB Olympic selection, will be back in action at the 2024 European 470 Championship this weekend hosted at the Yacht Club de Cannes.
Likely their final international class event before heading to the Olympic sailing venue in Marseille . . . and another chance to compete with the top teams they will face their.
Heathcote and Grube, pulled out of the recent French Olympic Week in Hyères after just four races, and it was another British pair, Bettine Harris and Martin Wrigley, who took bronze behind the French duo Camille Lecointre and Jérémie Mion.
Lecointre and Mion are the French 470 selection for the Paris Games and won in Palma and Hyères. The French will also have Matisse Pacaud and Lucie de Gennes, two-time European champions and three-time junior world champions.
Other top competitors include Spain’s Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman, 2024 world champions, and third placed Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka of Japan.
The Swedes Anthon Dhalberg and Lovisa Karlsson, 2023 European champions. And Germany’s Malte and Anastasiya Winkel, second in the Paris 2024 Test Event behind Lecointre and Mion.
The 2024 Games will feature the 470 as a single mixed event for the first time after twelve Olympiads of separate men and women’s events.
Although a European Championship the 52 entries include top world-wide entries warming-up for the 2024 Olympics which start 28 July.
Also taking place during May are the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 Europeans in La Grande Motte, France, and the Formula Kite Worlds in Hyeres, France.
And keeping up the pace for the Olympic classes the Hempel WC Series Allianz Regatta in Holland and Kieler Week in Germany in June.
470 European Championship British entries:
GBR 4 – Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube (Team GB)
GBR 9 – Hannah Bristow and James Taylor
GBR 11 – Charlie Leigh and Ryan Orr
GBR 55 – Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris
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