Santander 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships fires the starting signal this afternoon

The inaugural ceremony will take place at Las Llamas Park at 19:00 and will be open to general public

The journalist Jesús Alvarez speech will precede the parade of nations.

Santander 2014 ISAF countdown will be over at 7:00 pm. Las Llamas Park is the chosen scenery for the opening gala for ten days of classificatory regattas. Fifty percent of the 2016 olympic qualifying positions will come out of here, and the 2014 world championship in its different categories.

The journalist Jesús Alvarez speech will precede the parade of nations. The flag bearer of each delegation will be accompanied by a local sailing student and will reach the auditorium nearby a reproduction of the Hispania sailboat.

After the parade, six municipal school gymnasts will bear the flag that identifies Santander as the host of the Sailing World Championship and will give it to Alejandro Abascal and Toño Gorostegui, the ones in charge to raise it.

Authorities will deliver formal speeches and will swear in the athletes through the cantabrian sailor Berta Betanzos. Afterwards the Municipal Music Band, the Ataulfo Argenta Conservatory students and several local choirs will perform the championship anthem.

Around 20:00 a gunner wearing historical clothes will shoot a XVIII canon manufactured by the royal factory of Artillery La Cavada; the Spain national anthem will be played and will start the air display of the Patrulla Águila. To conclude the ‘Big Band Aurora & The Betrayers’ will give a 45 minute concert.

It will be advisable to go there early enough to avoid congestions. From 6:00 pm there will be children activities and distribution of 2.500 rations of the local seafood “rabas” nearby the Palacio de Deportes.

To reach the Parque de Las Llamas, there will be a special bus, from 4:30 pm every five minutes from Jesús de Monasterio,  with bus stops at Ayuntamiento, Correos, Puerto Chico and Palacios de Deportes.

For those going there by car keep in mind that Fernández Fontecha street will be closed both ways from the Galicia roundabout to the entrance of the University in Puente Arenas.