August 7, 2023
1 minute reading time
Allianz Sailing World Championships 2023: Ones to Watch - 49erFX
Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz (NED) have proved every bit as dominant in the 49erFX as their 49er teammates in the men’s skiff.
Winners of the past two World Championships, they won the Paris 2024 Test Event by a clear 30 points from their rivals, the double Olympic champions from Brazil.
The experience of coming from behind to win gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 means you can never count out Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA) who have an uncanny ability to bounce back from difficult situations and somehow come out on top. The duel between the Dutch and the Brazilians will be one of the battles to watch at next year’s Games.
There are a number of contenders for the best of the rest. Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler (SWE) are tall and fast in the breeze and gave their Dutch training partners a good battle for the world title in Canada last year before settling for silver.
The Swedes might well have beaten the Brazilians for silver in Marseille this summer but for a final day injury, yet they still took bronze ahead of Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea (USA), another team with long experience and capable of finishing on the podium. Others to watch are Tamara Echegoyen and Paula Barcelo (ESP), double world champions in the class, and Belgium’s Isaura Maenhaut and Anouk Geurts (BEL).