Windsurf / Press Release n.26 17 May 2005

XX Edition World Festival On The Beach
Palermo Mondello 11-22 May 2005

ANNUAL GENERAL IMCO MEETING HELD IN MONDELLO DURING THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS REST DAY. VINCENZO POTTINO ELECTED AS PRESIDENT

This afternoon the XXVII Mistral Class World Championships welcomed the IMCO class Annual General Meeting to Mondello, this international organization saw Vincenzo Pottino already vice president being elected as President of the organization. The Frenchman Jean Francois Reggio was elected as vice president. Voted by everyone who attended the meeting, the president of the Albaria club, advisor to the Federvela and winner of the world windsurfing championships in 1988 in South Africa, Vincenzo Pottino is taking the helm of the IMCO in a delicate moment when the importance of the Mistral One Design and the role it has in the whole windsurfing world must be communicated.
One of the main themes in the agenda at this meeting in Mondello was to try to understand where the Mistral Class stands seeing as it is no longer to be among  the olympic classes.
The Mistral Class continues to be the most used board throughout the world, as has been noted in the report by Rene Appel, Hong Kongs team technician, at the Asian Mistral Class Championships, organized in Japan in April. This tournament turned out to be in quality and participation terms very high. More than 400 competitions have been organized in France, where the authorities are evaluating the possibility of economic help in funding the activity.
The financial resources are constant problems that worry many countries with the prospect of a new olympic board on its way that will add on expenses. The multi olympic medalist Nikos Kaklamanakis from Greece made note that many countries such as Greece won’t be able to maintain the huge expenses for the material needed to participate in the World Championships.
The best things to do is to carry on organizing competitions on the Mistral one Design which it has done for many years with success, and to make the number of people who use it in the world even bigger.