Sunday’s final day was truly exciting for Spanish fans as the Galician siblings managed to overtake Britain’s William Pank and Thommie Grit, who started the day with a one-point advantage in the European division.
In the final fleet race the Spanish duo finished third – while their rivals could only manage a 26th. This gave the Wizners a fifteen-point advantage over Pank/Grit going into the medal race. Despite the British crew winning the double-points final, the Spanish finished seventh, enough to secure the European title – three points ahead of silver medallists Pank and Grit. The bronze went to Israelis Tal Sade and Maor Abu.
In the Open Division the top three places went to non-European teams, with New Zealanders Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush taking first place, ahead of Americans Nevin Snow and Ian MacDiarmid. Uruguayans Hernan Umpierre and Fernando Diz finished third.
"We're very happy. The medal race was quite intense and we struggled a bit, which caused us to lose a place in the overall standings, but the goal was to take European gold, and we achieved it," said Martín Wizner (24).
His brother Jaime (21) said their success had come as a surprise: "Our first goal was to qualify for the medal race, but from the first few days we felt very comfortable on the water and climbed the ranks until we found ourselves at the top. Today we had to finish it off."
Martín previously won the 420 World and European Championship titles with Pedro Ameneiro. Sailing with his younger brother, he won European Junior 49er gold in 2023. This weekend’s European victory is their first major 49er title in the senior category.
The reigning Olympic champions in the class Diego Botín and Florian Trittel have been away racing in SailGP, but will soon return to their Olympic careers for the 49er World Championship in October in Cagliari, Sardinia.
"Diego and Flo are in a different league,” said Martín Wizner. “It's an honour to be able to sail alongside them and learn from them."
Mallorca’s Conrad Konitzer and Alicante-native Antonio Torrado finished the European Championship in twenty-second place, after finishing seventh in the final qualification race.
In the 49er FX fleet, Patricia Suárez and Melania Henke, both 20 years old and members of the 2032 team programme, finished in twelfth place overall. Another 2032 team duo – Stella Enríquez (20) and Mar Gil (21) from the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation – finished in nineteenth place.
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