World Sailor of the Year: Vendée Globe heroes Dalin and Mettraux crowned
The competition was fierce, but their performances were magnificent: Charlie Dalin and Justine Mettraux have been voted Rolex World Sailors of the Year. Dalin was present in person at the Royal St George Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. Just how extraordinary his performance at the Vendée Globe was, beyond the purely sporting gala, only became known in October, when Dalin revealed his well-kept secret and told us about his bowel cancer, which he had used to compete in the race around the world. Only his family knew about this during the Vendée Globe.
No time to celebrate: "Queen" Justine Mettraux
The new World Sailor of the Year had won the Vendée Globe in a fabulous time of 64 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 49 seconds. He beat the previous record by nine days, eight hours, 12 minutes and 57 seconds. Click here for the final report on Dalin's victory in January this year. Before Charlie Dalin, no Frenchman had ever won the Rolex World Sailor of the Year award since its premiere in 1994, despite numerous exceptional performances. The record winner is Britain's Sir Ben Ainslie with four world sailing titles.
Charlie Dalin's Vendée Globe rival Justine Mettraux was unable to receive the World Sailor of the Year award in person. While the heroes of the Vendée Globe were being celebrated in Ireland, the Swiss sailor was battling her way to fifth place in the ongoing Transat Café L'Or - alongside her co-skipper Xavier Macaire on "Team Snef - TeamWork".Click here for tracking - towards the finish line off Martinique. The Imoca fleet was led there on the evening of 5 November by Jérémie Beyou and Sébastien Josse on "Charal".
Justine Mettraux had a fascinating run around the world in 76 days, 1 hour and 36 minutes. Now the Vendée Globe winner is officially the "queen of global female sailing". Hard-working, determined, focussed and aggressive at the right and important moments: the talented and likeable offshore icon combines all the classic qualities of a successful athlete. She is neither it-girl nor superwoman - and yet she is a queen. Her realm is the world's oceans, where she still has a lot of plans.
Dominant in the America's Cup: Kiwis can "Team"
The America's Cup winners from Emirates Team New Zealand were named Team of the Year. The Royal Yachting Association's (RYA) Life Recreation ReMedies project won the 11th Hour Racing Impact Award. The new World Sailing Technology Award went to Vakaros. The voting results were based on the decisions of a jury of experts in combination with 17,480 public votes.
This year's Kuehne+Nagel awards for Young World Sailor of the Year went to Nikolaos Pappas from Greece and Marta Cardona from Spain. Pappas will be remembered for his coup at the Opti World Championship: at the age of just 13, he won his first international regatta at the first attempt, leaving 213 young athletes from all over the world in his wake and taking the title.
Marta Cardona Alcántara from Spain also achieved an impressive first performance when she and her helmsman Jordi Xammar won the title in the 470 mixed Olympic discipline at their first European and World Championships. She had only been training with Xammar for 40 days. The two Spaniards first made a splash with European Championship gold, then a month later they became world champions together. The other prizes were awarded in Ireland as part of the Rolex World Sailor of the Year awards to sustainable and innovative companies and environmental protection projects.
