Medemblik Regatta aims for leading role in Olympic Sailing

The Medemblik Regatta, formerly known as Spa, Holland or Delta Lloyd Regatta, can once again become a global event in Olympic Sailing.

World Sailing’s 2021 – 2028 Events Strategy will see the Spring regatta get a prominent and protected position on the International calendar. As the most successful sailing country of the 2018 World Championships in Aarhus, the Netherlands deserves a world-class home competition. TIG Sports, Watersportverbond and Municipality Medemblik aim to achieve this goal in 2021 to support participants in all Olympic classes on their way to Paris 2024.
 
Prominent and protected position on the International calendar
The Medemblik Regatta has a reputation for quality, innovation and surprise since 1985. Together with the other spring classics like Kieler Woche, Semaine Olympique Hyères and the Trofeo Princesa Sofia, Medemblik will have a prominent and protected position on the International calendar for the next five years. As a result, from 2021 onwards, elite international sailors can collect World Sailing World Ranking points in Medemblik.
 
“Incredibly important for sailing”
Chief Executive Officer of Watersportverbond, the Dutch Sailing Federation, Arno van Gerven sees a healthy future for sailing in the country, “The Netherlands has many beautiful sailing events. Traditional and innovative; from Sneekweek to Nationals and Windfoiling. This is mainly thanks to the driving force of our key sailing clubs. The Medemblik Regatta is an event in which our best Dutch sailors compete against the world’s best in front of their home crowd on home waters. That is incredibly important for an even better future of sailing in our country. This event is the perfect place to meet and inspire athletes, clubs, volunteers, public and existing and future commercial partners.”
 
World class race management together with the biggest sailing clubs
The Hague will host the Youth Sailing World Championships in 2021 and then the Sailing World Championships in 2022. Watersportverbond, together with TIG Sports, will build up valuable organisational experience and the management team will be used at the Medemblik Regatta.
 
The volunteers of the sailing clubs involved in race management such as KWV de Kaag, KNZ & RV Muiden, KZ&RV de Maas, KWV Loosdrecht and Hollandia are building their race management experience and will develop further in the Netherlands qualitatively and quantitatively at a leading global standard.
 
2020 transition year
As the Olympic sailors are expected to be in Tokyo at the end of May 2020 in preparation for the Games, the organisation, has decided that the Medemblik Regatta in 2020 will be compact and innovative.
 
This means that in 2020 the Medemblik Regatta is already looking ahead to the World Championships in its own country in 2021 and 2022 and to the Olympic Games in 2024. For example, Foiling Windsurfing and Kiteboarding classes will be invited. In addition, the Para World Sailing classes are invited and young talent, targeting Paris 2024, will be able to showcase their skillsets in the high-performance disciplines.
 
Experience at the highest level
TIG Sports has taken over responsibility of organising the Medemblik Regatta. The Amsterdam based sports marketing company is no stranger to sailing. They organised the hugely successful finish of the Volvo Ocean Race in 2018 and won the bid for the Sailing World Championships in 2022 and Youth Sailing World Championships in 2021. On behalf of TIG Sports, Frans Hin remains on the board to organise the Medemblik Regatta.
 
Dates Medembik Regatta 2020 – 2024

• 2020: June 4 – June 7
• 2021: June 2 – June 6
• 2022: June 1 to June 5
• 2023: May 31 – June 4
• 2024: May 29 – June 2