Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance win gold at first Sailing Grand Slam regatta of the season

by Sail Canada 4 Apr 08:48 PDT March 30 - April 4, 2026

Canadian sailors Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance won the gold medal in 49erFX at the first Grand Slam regatta of the season, the Princess Sofia Trophy, which ended on Saturday in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

After starting the day in second place and just one point behind the leaders, reigning world champions Paula Barcelo and Maria Cantero of Spain, Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance ended up taking the lead in the standings following the very last race of the competition to win the gold medal.

Under Saturday's new competition format, the top 10 teams from the Qualifying Series competed in two final races, starting that phase with the net points they had accumulated before the last day of the competition, minus those from their worst performance, which amounted to 36 points for Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance. Added to that total were their points from the final two races of the Final Series held on Saturday.

In the first race of the Final Series, Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance finished fourth, while the Spanish team extended its lead to four points with a first-place finish.

However, in the second race of the day and the final race of the competition, the Canadians finished fifth, while the Spanish team took the 10th position. Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance thus won gold with 46 points, followed by Sophie Steinlein and Catherine Bertelheimer from Germany, the silver medalists with 47 points, as well as the Spanish pair of Paula Barcelo and Maria Cantero, who ultimately earned bronze although they also finished with 47 points. The tiebreaker between the Spanish and the Germans was the best performance in the final race of the competition, with the latter finishing just ahead of the Canadians in fourth place.

"It feels amazing," said Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance. "We just had such a crazy day! We feel we put together two consistent races that put us on top and it was insane. We did not know that we won. We made a lot of mistakes in those races, so when we crossed the finish line, we had no idea. The photographer was asking us for a photo and we were: 'why?' Once we found out and got confirmation that we'd won, we were both really surprised, but super happy, super proud, and it's an honour to win this event specifically. We've been coming here for the last five years or so and we've always looked up to our competitors who have won this event. It's really a cool feeling and an honour to be amongst them this time."

"We totally share all of this with our sponsors and supporters. None of this would have been possible without them. We feel the support and we feel the love. We're so grateful. Thank you so much, we're pumped. Woo!"

Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance have therefore kicked off in a great way a new racing season following a successful year in 2025 which saw them reach the podium in four of the six competitions in which they took part. They won the gold medal at the 49erFX European Championship, in addition to winning bronze at the French Olympic Week and Kiel Week events as well as at the 49erFX World Championship.

They will be looking to build on their momentum in a few weeks when they take part in the second leg of the Grand Slam series, the French Olympic Week, April 18 to 25.

A total of 15 Canadians competed in the 2026 Princess Sofia Trophy regatta, the first of five Olympic class regattas to be held in 2026 as part of the Grand Slam series, and which marked the first major competition of the season.

More than 1,100 sailors were in action at the 2026 Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta, including 93% of the medalists from last year's various World Championships and 52% of the medalists from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the 10 Olympic classes presented.

The four other regattas that will be part of the Grand Slam Series this year are French Olympic Week (April 18-25), Dutch Water Week (May 30-June 7), Kiel Week (June 20-28) as well as the Long Beach and San Pedro Olympic Classes Regatta (OCR) (July 13-August 8).

A new competition format

The Princess Sofia Trophy regatta featured a new competition format this year, including the Qualifying and Final Series.

In the Qualifying Series, athletes first competed in preliminary races and aimed to avoid the cut in order to qualify for the Gold Fleet in the elimination races—the only way to end up on the podium. The others competed in the silver or bronze fleets depending on their ranking.

Except in the iQFoil and Formula Kite classes, athletes then began the Elimination Series with a point total corresponding to their ranking following the preliminary races. The top 10 athletes following the qualification series, which included both the preliminary and elimination races, qualified for the final series day, which featured two races, as part of what was previously called the Medal Race. Also, if among the 10 boats that qualified for the Final Series, the point differential between any two boats exceeded nine points, the points were adjusted so that the differential would not exceed nine points; similarly, the points between third and tenth place were adjusted so that the differential would not exceed 18 points.

The final ranking was determined by the total net points accumulated during the qualification series, to which the points from the two final series were added.

Canadian results at the Princess Sofia Trophy regatta

49erFX (/62)

• GOLD - Antonia & Georgia Lewin-LaFrance * (Chester, N.S.)

ILCA 7 (/197)

• Gold Fleet
  • 40. Ryan Anderson (Halifax, N.S.)*
  • 44. James Juhasz (Oakville, ON)*

• Silver Fleet
  • 93. Liam Bruce (Oakville, ON)*

  Bronze Fleet

  • 172. Carlos Charabati (Montreal, QC)

ILCA 6 (/143)

• Silver Fleet
  • 56. Clara Gravely (Toronto, ON)*

• Bronze Fleet
  • 105. Annie Balasubramanian (Toronto, ON) *
  • 112. Victoria Coady (Coquitlam, B.C.)*
  • 124. Elspeth Simms (Halifax, N.S.)

Nacra 17 (/42)

Silver Fleet

• 32. Galen Richardson (Toronto, ON) & Madeline Gillis (Halifax, N.S.)*

49er (/101)

Silver Fleet

• 50. Thomas & William Staples (Beaconsfield, QC)*

iQFoil M/H (/118)

Silver Fleet

• 62. Valentino Blewett (Whistler, B.C.)*

*Canadian Sailing Team members