Nicholas O'Leary's Green Armada Team To Race in Bahrain's SSL Gold Cup 2022 Final in October

25th May 2022

Nicholas O'Leary's Green Armada Irish sailing SSL Gold Cup team in Switzerland included: Bow -Simon Johnson, Mid Bow/grinder/strategy - Ryan Glynn, Pit - Cian Guilfoyle, Grinder - Grattan Roberts, Trim - David Kenefick, Trim - George Kingston, Main/tactics - Nin O’Leary and Helm - Harry Durcan

Nicholas O'Leary's Green Armada Irish sailing team in Switzerland included: Bow -Simon Johnson, Mid Bow/grinder/strategy - Ryan Glynn, Pit - Cian Guilfoyle, Grinder - Grattan Roberts, Trim - David Kenefick, Trim - George Kingston, Main/tactics - Nin O’Leary and Helm - Harry Durcan Credit: Martina Orsini

Nicholas O'Leary's Green Armada Irish sailing team will be heading to the Kingdom of Bahrain this October for the SSL Gold Cup 2022 Final Series having qualified on Lake Neuchatel last weekend.

Bahrain will host the SSL GOLD CUP 2022 Final Series, dubbed the first Football World Cup… in Sailing. The SSL Gold Cup, a World Sailing Special Event organized every four years by the Sailing Athletes Foundation (SAF), is “THE” ultimate challenge, say promoters, between sailing nations to crown the World Champions, a first in the sport’s history.

The Kingdom of Bahrain has been proactive to host international Sport events including F1 Bahrain Grand Prix since 2004, Asian Cycling Championships 2017, the Amateur MMA World Championship in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The SSL GOLD CUP Final Series 2022 will be the first World Class Sailing event to take place in Bahrain since the Military world sailing championship 2010 and the Kingdom Match Race 2021. The new development project Water City Garden, in front of the iconic Manama City skyline, will welcome the event.

Like the World Cup in Football, the SSL GOLD CUP gives a singular equal opportunity challenge for all the 40 teams, who race on the exact same boat, the SSL47, a 14-meter performance racing boat, handed by the organization.

In each group, four teams will battle their way through to the next round. In Round of 32, the 16 teams from Qualifying Series will race from October 28 to November 2nd. The Top two teams of each group will join the next 8 teams, including Bahrain in Round of 16, and so on until the Grand Final programmed on November 20th.

These 40 teams include the World’s Top 23 Sailing nations plus 16 teams coming from the Qualifying Series (organized from May to July 2022) and the host nation, SSL Team Bahrain. Local champion Abdullah Janachi is appointed Captain of the "Sharks", the nickname of the team.

Like the pinnacle event in Football, each team will be wearing the colours of their nation and their emblems. Each team includes 11 athletes including Olympic Champions and Medalists (including Annalise Murphy from Ireland), Olympians, World Champions from inshore Sailing classes.

Amongst the best sailors in the World, we find Ian Williams and Sir Ben Ainslie (SSL Team GBR), Tom Slingsby (SSL Team Australia), Robert Scheidt and Martine Grael (SSL Team Brazil), Anne-Marie Rindom (Denmark), Xavier Rohart (SSL Team France), Taylor Canfield (SSL Team United States), and many more.

Published in SSL Gold Cup, Royal Cork YC

Published in SSL Gold Cup

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SSL Gold Cup

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About the Star Sailors League Gold Cup

In 2022, Sailing finally got its own World Cup, according to the promoters of the SSL (STAR SAILORS LEAGUE) Gold Cup.

Like football in 1930 and rugby in 1987, the SSL Gold Cup is designed to crown the best sailing nation of all! The World's Top 56 countries, selected on their SSL Nation ranking, will battle their way through to raise the coveted and only Sailing World Cup trophy.

The SSL is the global inshore sailing circuit launched by Olympic athletes in 2012, by sailors for sailors. Its main philosophy considers the athletes (not the boats) as the “Stars” and it aims to showcase the annual global sailing championship with its over 15’000 regattas; it determines and celebrates the world leaders in sailing promoting the inshore regattas to the global audience.

The three main components of the SSL Circuit are the SSL Ranking published every Tuesday, updating the position of over 100,000 leading athletes, thus highlighting the world’s top inshore sailors. The SSL Finals taking place every year around November-December, it’s the annual final of the SSL Circuit among the 20/25 best athletes of the ranking, to crown the champion of the season. And the SSL Gold Cup, the ‘ultimate’ championship of the circuit with 56 nations among World Sailing members, to crown the best sailing nation.

In a mechanical sport where the race for technology sometimes gets in the way of the race for glory, the SSL aims for equal competition where the talent of the sailors is at the forefront and the champions become heroes that inspire new generations of sailors.

The SSL is a World Sailing Special Event since 2017.