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Malta 49ers to boost their Olympic Bid with a Fundraiser at The Royal Malta Yacht Club
Seb Ripard, 23 and Benji Borg, 20 two talented, young Maltese sailors who are aiming to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, are organising a fundraising event on Friday 15th October 2010. All funds from the Royal Malta Yacht Club Annual party will go towards helping them to achieve their dream of competing in the 49er Class at The Olympics.
Both started sailing in the Optimist Class as young children and have competed internationally at both junior and senior levels since. Seb comes from a family of sailors - his grandfather represented Malta at the Olympic Games in 1960, and his father competes internationally, co-skippering the overall winner of the Middlesea Race in 2002 when Seb was on board as part of his crew.
In the 2006 Middlesea Race, Seb co-skippered the J109 Artie, coming 1st in class and 2nd overall. In 2008, he skippered a J80 to place 18th at the World Championships, and that year placed 2nd at Skandia Cowes Week, winning the title “Skandia Young Skipper of the Year” and at the same event in 2010, once again he skippered a J80 to 2nd place.
Benji has won Gold twice for Malta at The Small Nation Games, and has placed 5th in the European Championships. Last year, Seb and Ben teamed up to train together on the 49er, a two-man skiff dinghy which is the fastest sailing class at The Olympics.
Both men have their sights set on this event at the 2012 Olympics and have undertaken a rigorous training schedule both on and off the water and have competed all over Europe in the ISAF (International Sailing Federation) World Cup. In 2011 they will be training in Malta and Europe, competing again in the ISAF World Cup (Australia, USA and Europe) and then hopefully qualifying for the Olympics during the qualification events in Perth, Australia in 2011 and Croatia in 2012.
In order to be able to compete at such a high level, the sailors need to raise a substantial amount of funds, and they are hoping that the Maltese, both here and abroad will be behind them all the way. To boost their Olympic bid, the 49ers are organising a Fundraising Party at The Royal Malta Yacht Club, Ta’Xbiex on Friday 15th October.
The party will start at 8.00PM and there will be a welcome drink, buffet, live music by Dynamic Fudge and a DJ ‘til late. A raffle will be held on the night with prizes kindly donated by Tommy Hilfiger, Next and Marks and Spencer. Tickets are €25.00 per head and are available from The Royal Malta Yacht Club, telephone 2133 3109, or email [email protected]. Alternatively phone Seb on 9925 7132, Benji on 7937 1852, Emma 9949 3204 or Graziella 9949 6798.
Malta 49ers; proudly sponsored by EC English Language Centres, Yacht Help Malta, Malta’s first low carbohydrate beer Cisk Excel, MTA, The Creative Partners, Body Works and The Royal Malta Yacht Club.
