Press Release

Press Release 2 - Portimão, 18.06.2008

In the current Olympic year, Portimão becomes the Windsurfing World Capital!

Portimão will host, from the 6th till the 14th September, the Formula Windsurfing World Championships, which will bear in its title the name of the City, thanks to the unconditional support it has been giving to this event, in particular, and to sports in general. It’s only fair to point out that the Municipality of Portimão, besides hosting some of the most important international windsurfing events since 1998 in its waters, is providing a huge support to the world federative sport.

The 2008 Portimão Formula Windsurfing World Championships represent the biggest competition of this sport to a global scale and give the title of 2008 World Champion to the Men and Women divisions. The sailors present in this event are selected from the continental championships that take place all over the planet. They represent the best of the best of high competition windsurfing! In addition, these championships include a € 30,000.00 prize money.

The Formula Windsurfing World Championships appear in the City of Portimão randomly, resulting from a planning work integrated and supported by this Municipality, in the scope of a marketing strategy focused in creating an awareness of the Region and Portugal, in the international tourist and sportive panorama.

The Municipality of Portimão has always known how to take advantage of its more valuable natural resources, as the Sun and the Beach, managing to attain an excellent promotion of this spot by joining to this appealing cocktail the continuous organization of international events of one of the most spectacular summer sports - Windsurfing. With these actions, the Municipality of Portimão, as the promoter of this extra gain for the national tourism, may feel proud today to see its name included as one of the most highly appreciated ones in the world rotaries of this sport, weather it is in leisure or in competition trend.

All of the development route of this Project in Portimão has been made in an objective way. The set up of the first International Championships, the Iberian Circuits, goes back in 1998. In the following years, some superior status events have appeared, as the Euro Cup’s, the Grand Prix, finishing in 2008 with the organization of the Formula Windsurfing World Championships – an event organized only in countries and spots which have shown a good organizing capacity and a great availability to cooperate in the sport development process.

This time, the Portimão Formula Windsurfing World Championships occur in an Olympic year, which turns the City into a spinning wheel of all the attentions that build up around the Olympic Windsurfing. In effect, the Formula Windsurfing World Championships will support the presentation of the new Olympic Project, where all the arguments defending the Formula will be strongly stated by the highest sport entities, escorted by the super famous sailor, three times Champion and current World Champion in title – the Australian Allison Shereeve, who will fly to Portimão not only to defend the Project, but also to protect her title from the attack of the new Poland’s stars who recently appeared in the Formula world panorama.

The new equipment of the Formula Windsurfing - One Design, which will be presented in Portimão during the Formula World Championships, the most well positioned Class to integrate the next Olympic Games in 2012, will allow the sailors to plane and make regattas with winds between the 6 and 30 knots. Truly amazing, as this set made of just one sail and one board will make it possible to achieve a highly competitive level in a extended range of winds.

Some of the strongest arguments of the Formula to the nomination to the Olympic board are: the capacity to make the races, even with weak winds; the will of the sailors to see in the Olympic Games the reflection of the only Class that mirrors the sport closer to its followers and the audience; the opportunity to eliminate the constant “pumping” in regattas, once the fact that it isn’t necessary to “pump” anymore means less physical effort for the sailors, which let them focus more on the competition tactics, tunings and technique.

All the 2008 Portimão Formula Windsurfing World Championships caravan, as well as the regatta delegates and officials who make part of the event, will be staying in the Grupo Pestana - Hotels & Resorts - the Official Sponsor of the Championships, which allow the organization to install the Race Office in a superb meetings room of the brand new Hotel D. João ll, in Alvor - an hotel which opens its doors to the beach where all the action will take place.

By plane, the entry door in Portugal for the 2008 Portimão Formula Windsurfing World Championships is the Airport of Faro, located at 67 kms from the event’s spot. As always, the Municipality of Portimão, will provide for a free transfer service - Airport/ Alvor/ Airport for the sailors, judges and press. By road, the visitors can have access to the spot through the good highways that head to the South of Portugal.

Supporting the coming of this great event to our country, as Main Sponsors, we have the Municipality of Portimão and ExpoArade, EM. For the technical area, IWA [International Windsurfing Association], FPV [Portuguese Sailing Federation] and ISAF [International Sailing Federation] assume the sports management. By delegation of these Federations and Associations, the Overpower Club, acting as the LOA [Local Organizer Authority] will be in charge of the Race organization.

The event’s TV coverage, production and distribution is the responsibility of Red Handed TV and Sail TV, that have always provided us with high quality images, as the ones seen on the 2007 ISAF Games, in Cascais, or the 2007 America’s Cup ones, in Valência. In order to assure the quality of these TV and Internet image packages, this producer will send to Portimão a very experienced team in the scenery of this sport.

The web portal that will represent the 2008 Portimão Formula Windsurfing World Championships, among the Portuguese speaking communities, estimated in 230 million people in potential, is in www.conquilha.com - a portal with proved merits that already supports great international events organized in Portugal since 2005.

The official sites are: www.overpower.net/portimao_worldchamps08; www.formulawindsurfing.org; www.internationalwindsurfing.com.

During the event, there will be available on a daily basis, pictures, press releases, image packages with professional quality for TV and the internet, which can be requested at our Press Office.

For further details, please contact: