Bermeo Urdaibai and Orio, current champions of the men’s Eusko Label and women’s Euskotren leagues that bring together the best drifters from Cantabria and Galicia, will begin the defense of their respective crowns this weekend at the VII Bandeira Cidade da Coruña. Both the ‘Bou Bizkaia’ and the Gipuzkoan ‘San Nikolas’ also start with the band of favorites to win the title again when the course ends, on September 17 for men and August 20 for women, in one season historic for the women’s competition with the jump from four to eight participants.
In the male category, the always competitive Hondarribia and Donostiarra are outlined a priori as the main rivals of the Bermeo gang trained by Iker Zabala, with Orio as the first applicant to complete the batch of honor in most regattas. Behind them, Getaria and Kaiku, in the year of their centenary and under the baton for yet another year of the legendary José Luis Korta, have enough potential and experience in their benches to choose to regularly enter the lot of the top four.
The big unknowns are the crews of Zierbena, Santurtzi and Cabo da Cruz. The three have their new coach and project so that, in the case of the two teams from Biscay, take a step forward after a difficult year and, in the case of the Galician, maintain their usual solidity and achieve permanence without too many problems. That objective of avoiding the last direct relegation place and the penultimate one that forces them to play the ‘playoff’ will have on paper the Biscayans of Ondarroa and Lekittarra and the recently promoted Samertolameu, who occupies Ares’s place in the league.
In the women’s category, in the absence of discovering the potential of the newcomers Cabo and Tirán, everything points to a Gipuzkoan monopoly with Orio as the favorite ahead of Donostia Arraun, the only team that challenged him for hegemony last season, and from Donostiarra. Tolosaldea, who completed the lot in 2022, and the also promoted Gipuzkoans of Hondarribia and Hibaika close this first league of eight women’s boats that will consist of 14 scoring regattas and whose winning crew will be announced on August 20 in Zarautz.
The men’s, for its part, will have 20 events and will conclude on the third weekend of September in Bermeo and Portugalete, also venues for the relegation or permanence playoffs in both categories.
