Aruba, Germany and Spain are the latest nations to win places in the Nacra 17 sailing event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has confirmed. The class, which will make its Olympic debut in Rio, features a two-person catamaran and is the only Olympic sailing event in which men and women compete together in mixed teams.

Aruba, Germany and Spain qualified via the ISAF Nacra 17 World Championship held in Aarhus, Denmark on 2-10 July. The 10 nations that had already secured Olympic places in the class via last year’s ISAF Sailing World Championships, which featured all of the Olympic classes, were not eligible to win extra places in Aarhus.

This meant that Germany’s Paul Kohlhoff and Carolina Werner, Aruba’s Nicole van de Velden and Thijs Visser, and Spanish duo Iker Martinez and Marina Lopez Casanova – who finished fifth, seventh and ninth, respectively, in Denmark – won places for their National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in Brazil next year.

France’s Billy Besson and Marie Riou won gold for the third consecutive year following a dominant performance, with Australian pair Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin taking silver and Dutch duo Mandy Mulder and Coen De Koning picking up bronze.

A total of 20 teams will contest the Nacra 17 event at Rio 2016. Host nation Brazil is guaranteed one place and the remaining six will be awarded via a series of continental qualification events sanctioned by ISAF, that will be held by 1 June 2016 at the latest.

ISAF is organising these continental qualifiers for the first time in order to develop sailing around the world and reflect IOC principles, which aim to ensure the participation of the best athletes and representation from all continents.

Rio2016.com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process. Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change. When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC). Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota.