Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance move up in standings to qualify for 49erFX Worlds Final Series
by Sail Canada 16 May 16:08 PDT
May 12-17, 2026
Canadian sailors Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance have qualified for the Final Series to be held Sunday at the 2026 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championships in Saint-Pierre-Quiberon, France.
Ranked in 14th place ahead of the final day of the Qualification Series, the sisters from Chester, N.S., recorded the 5th and 7th positions in two of the three races that were held on Saturday to climb up five spots and therefore move into 9th place, allowing them to qualify amongst the top 10 boats for Sunday's Final Series.
Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance started the week in 15th position, then slipped to 20th place following the two-day Preliminary Series, which gave them a spot in the top 25 and therefore qualified them for the Gold Fleet, earning them a shot at a podium finish. They then moved up in 14th position, and subsequently in 9th place, following the two-day Elimination Series.
"The pressure was on for our team today to try and make it into the top 10 after a pretty slow start to the week," said Antonia and Georgia Lewin-LaFrance. "The conditions were all over the place and we're happy to just have done two consistent races in the first two of the three. We managed to scrape into the top 10, so we'll be racing in the Final Series tomorrow and that will be a great practice for us."
"On Sunday, the points are going to be really condensed. It will be anyone's game given the week we've had. It will be really up to us to just focus on our own boat but, obviously, it would be sweet to do some climbing."
On Sunday, the top 10 boats will start the Final Series with their current cumulative score divided by 2.25. To this score, two single-point races will be added to create the Final score.
The sisters will start the Final Series with 46 points, eight points away from the podium.
Sunday's Final Series will be live streamed starting at 7:15am (Kingston time):