RS-X World Windsurfing Championships 2010 preparations well underway

by Rory Ramsden on 10 Jun 2010 The preparations for the 2010 RS:X World Windsurfing Championships are well underway. Windsurfers from many of the world's strongest sailing nations are out training on the water at Kerteminde; the host city of one of the largest sports events on Fünen in 2010, coming up on the other side of the summer.

These days, the bay off the coast of Kerteminde is as vibrant as never before. Windsurf sails from a lot of different nations including Hong Kong, Mexico, Canada and Finland are skimming the sunny waves in the bay at high speed.

But it is not just anybody windsurfing. Some of the world's best female windsurfers can be spotted testing their physical fitness prior to the World Championships in August.

'The windsurfing conditions at Kerteminde are perfect. Lots of space in the bay and good wind conditions', says the Canadian RS:X windsurfer Nikola Girke after a sail in the brisk westerly wind last Thursday.

Nikola Girke [CAN] will be in training camp till 9 August together with a handful of other international RS:X windsurfers including the two Danish participants in the World Windsurfing Championships, Bettina Honoré and Katrine Jensen.

38 years-old Bettina Honoré, who represented Denmark at the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, adds: 'I am very much looking forward to the world premiere of ‘Sailstream', enabling the audience to not only track us individually by means of GPS-tracking but also to see LIVE video images from the race course. The only thing left is to hope that the organisers will arrange for some good windsurfing weather!'.

The international windsurfers are also extremely positive when it comes to the setting of their training camp.

'Kerteminde is a fantastic cosy little town with everything very close by. It's so easy to get around in. It is, indeed, suitable for jogging and cycling as well and the food is excellent', says Nikola Girke, who still remembers when she was introduced to cold buttermilk soup for the first time with great enthusiasm at the Nordic Championships in 2009.

When the female, Danish windsurfers have left Kerteminde together with the international competitors in the training camp, the French RS:X national windsurfing team is taking over, as from 10 June they are visiting Kerteminde as part of their training for the RS:X World Windsurfing Championships in August.

At the RS:X World Windsurfing Championships in August the current friendly atmosphere among the competitors is likely to give way to fierce competition, when the 100 male windsurfers and 60 female windsurfers, representing 50 nations, are expected to invade Kerteminde.

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