Mallorcan Marta Cardona, World Champion in Mixed 470 with Jordi Xammar

Catalan sailor Jordi Xammar and Mallorcan Marta Cardona, from Club Nàutic s'Arenal, have been crowned World Champions in the 470 class after an exciting week of races in Gdynia, Poland. The Spanish duo delivered a solid and consistent performance throughout the championship, securing the gold medal in today’s decisive Medal Race on June 14th.

Patience was key in the Medal Race of the World Championship, the double-points, non-discardable race reserved for the top ten teams. Xammar and Cardona entered the race in second place overall, but everything was still at stake. The Race Committee had to cancel the first two starts during the opening upwind leg due to light wind conditions falling below the sail limit.

The third attempt went ahead in Gdynia's waters. The Spanish team chose the right side of the course on the first upwind leg, a decision that didn’t pay off. They also made an error approaching the windward mark, forcing them to start from the back, with their main rivals already ahead. At that point, any hope of a medal was at risk.

From there, the Catalan skipper and the Mallorcan crew member brought out their best. On the second upwind leg, they again chose the right side, and the German pair Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort tried to cover them. The Spanish boat managed to catch up, and by the second windward mark, they were within striking distance — the Germans in fifth, the Spaniards in sixth. Their final downwind leg was textbook, passing Diesch and Markfort and gaining on the British pair Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris, who had started the day in third and were also in contention for gold.

Finishing fourth in the Medal Race was enough for Jordi Xammar and Marta Cardona to claim the world title. The silver went to Germany’s Diesch and Markfort, who came fifth in the final, while the British team of Wrigley and Harris completed the podium after finishing third in the Medal Race.

Spain and Germany ended the championship tied on points, but the tiebreak favored Xammar and Cardona as they finished ahead in the Medal Race. The British team was just one point behind the gold and silver medalists.

This marks Xammar’s second consecutive world title after winning last year with Nora Brugman, with whom he placed fourth at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Along with these two golds, Xammar also holds three other 470 World Championship medals: bronze in 2018, silver in 2019, and bronze again in 2021.

Xammar reflected on his strong start to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle: “We’re extremely happy. Winning the European and the World Championship in three months is incredible. Especially considering the tough conditions we faced at Worlds, with very strong winds — a real challenge when we’ve only just started sailing together.”

“We went into the Medal Race with the top three boats very close in points and started from the back. It was a very tough race, canceled twice due to light wind. The third start was good, but we messed up the first leg. Still, we stayed focused and fought with everything we had. We literally won the Worlds on the final gybe, no one knew what would happen until the last mark. These are the kind of finals you dream of,  the more you suffer, the more you enjoy it. And on top of that, we had a three-point penalty… which had never been penalized before and suddenly they enforced it. So I told myself: ‘Now we really have to win this World Championship no matter what,’” said the Beijing 2020 medalist.

“I’m extremely excited,” said Marta Cardona. “It’s been an intense week, with lots of wind, and the Medal Race was exhausting, light, shifty winds, very tricky. There are a lot of emotions, but above all, I’m just really happy.”

“In the first windward mark, we rounded last after having to give way to several boats,” the young Mallorcan crew recalled. “I thought back to the Medal Race of Jordi and Nora in Paris 2024, but I trusted Jordi a lot. We didn’t give up, stayed really connected. It was psychologically tough to be last, but we held on, stayed focused, and managed to recover.”

Despite being only 20, the Mallorcan sailor didn’t let the pressure get to her: “This was the most important championship of the year, but Jordi reminded me every morning that we had to go out there and enjoy it, and I think we did. I told him I hadn’t felt this kind of adrenaline in years. At the Europeans it was a different story, more relaxed. This is what I love about sport.”

With a sixth-place finish in today’s Medal Race, Silvia Mas, also from Club Nàutic s'Arenal, and Alejandro de Maqua ended the World Championship in tenth place, a commendable result given that they had only been sailing together for a few weeks before the event.

The Spanish pre-Olympic sailing team is funded by the Spanish High Council for Sports, the Spanish Olympic Committee, and Universo Mujer, and is sponsored by Iberdrola and Quirón Prevención. Official suppliers include Azul Marino, Murimar Seguros, Nippon Express, Marine Pool, and Enovis.