Denmark sets sail towards ISAF Worlds 2014

Denmark has pulled out all the stops to host the ISAF Worlds in all Olympic classes in Aarhus in 2014

by Dansk Sejlunion

Five Danes left today, Tuesday, on their way towards Southampton (England) to present the Danish bid for hosting the ISAF Worlds 2014. The ambition is that all Olympic classes in 2014 will be competing for medals and qualification for the next Olympic Games in the Bay of Aarhus.

”It will be a huge event. We have in Aarhus made a determined bid to attract international regattas to the city. The Bay of Aarhus presents a unique sailing arena matched by only very few places in the world, says Alderman of Culture, Sports and Citizens Services at Aarhus Commune, Marc Pereira Christensen who makes the journey to England himself.

The five-man crew aiming to land the bid in Danish hands is:
Dan Ibsen – General Secretary of the Danish Sailing Union.
Marc Perera Christensen – Alderman of Culture, Sports and Citizens Services at Aarhus Commune.
Thomas Capitani Nielsen – CEO of Sailing Aarhus
Lars Lundov – CEO of Sport Event Denmark
Jesper Bank – Event consultant and former gold medal winner at the Olympics

”There’s no doubt that it will be of immense importance for Danish Sailing if we succeed in winning the right to host the event. It’s a very prestigious competition and the worlds biggest sailing event in terms of the number of participants, says Dan Ibsen, General Secretary of the Danish Sailing Union about the event which gathers more than 1.000 boats, 1.500 competitors and 600 international media representatives.

”Second only to the Olympics we are talking about a mega sail event in terms of prestige and it certainly won’t be easy to win the bid for Denmark. Denmark is up against a host of very strong rival candidates who all have massive experience in staging events. In our bid we emphasize the point that Denmark would contribute to the development of sailing through innovative ways of circulating the key messages of sailing. We are well aware that sailing indeed needs this Turning Point, which is also the central message of the campaign, says Lars Lundov, CEO of Sport Event Denmark.

The Danish bid is in competition with seven other bids. In all, four of the bidding cities have previously staged the Olympic Games.

The seven bidding cities are: Qingdao (China), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Kingston (Canada), Busan (Korea), Pomerania (Poland), Santander (Spain), The Hague (Holland) and Aarhus (Denmark).

The Bay of Aarhus hosted the ISAF Youth Worlds 2008. It’s the positive experiences from that event which will now help to secure Denmark the ISAF Worlds in 2014.

The wining bid will be revealed in the middle of February.

Dansk Sejlunion