Nominees finalised

Male and female shortlists completed for ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year

Voting to decide the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year closed today. Each of the 117 ISAF Member National Authorities had been invited to cast their vote, with the deadline closing at 1600 hours UTC on Friday 21 October 2005.

The nomination criteria for the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards 2005 is 'outstanding achievement' between 1 September 2004 and 31 August 2005. A fascinating mix of sailors are in contention, each of whom has recorded one or more exceptional feat across the spectrum of the sport during the period; this has set the race for some extremely close voting.

The 2005 nominees are:

Female
Claire LEROY (FRA)
Ellen MACARTHUR (GBR)
Blanca MANCHÓN (ESP)
Paige RAILEY (USA)

Male
Fernando ECHAVARRI and Antón PAZ (ESP)
Peter GILMOUR (AUS)
Finian MAYNARD (IVB)
Bruno PEYRON (FRA)
Vincent RIOU (FRA)
Rohan VEAL (AUS)

The winners will be unveiled at the ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards Dinner and Presentation on 8 November 2005 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore. Each winner will be presented with the coveted ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award Trophy and a Rolex timepiece.

Ed's note - and where is Francis Joyon???