The Spanish Association of Nautical Journalists (AEPN), chaired by Pedro Sardina, has presented its 2019 and 2020 Annual Awards to the Estrella Damm Sailing Team and the Ecomar Foundation chaired by double Olympic champion Theresa Zabell. At the event were present, the councilor of Beach, José Domenech the director of Marina Dénia, Gabriel Martínez, the navigator, Alex Pella and the members of the AEPN.
Both trophies were awarded at the annual AEPN gala that has been held at the Marina Dénia Sports and Tourist Port. The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the 2019 awards ceremony and delayed the 2020 awards until the current situation has allowed the act to be carried out jointly and following all current health restrictions.
The award for the 'Estrella Damm Sailing Team' regatta team was awarded for the sporting merits and the great campaign carried out in the 2018 and 2019 seasons in which it won the Copa del Rey Mapfre consecutively. It will be the first time that a regatta team has received the award. Twenty years after a project born in 1998 and that that same year, by the hand of Ignacio Montes de León, he was proclaimed absolute champion of the Copa del Rey Agua Brava was born, in 2018 and from the hand of the same sponsor the 'Estrella Damm Sailing Team ', this time with Nacho Montes and Óscar Chaves as shipowners. On their return to competition they won the Copa del Rey Mapre and the following year, in 2019, they defended and revalidated the title in the waters of the bay of Palma.
Theresa Zabell, the Olympic sailor, along with Luis Doreste, the most laureate of Spanish sailing, with two gold medals in class 470 (Barcelona, 92 and Atlanta, 96) -the only Spanish athlete, in addition to five titles of champion of the mundo was awarded the AEPN 2020 award for her sports career and her work as president of the Ecomar Foundation that she created in 1999.
Under the motto "Take care of the only two places from which you will never be able to move, your body and your planet", which defines the philosophy of the Foundation, educating and raising awareness that with the care of the seas a better planet will be achieved.
2.400.000 children have passed through its programs, 19.750 kilos of waste have been collected and 115,9 kilometers of coastline have been cleaned and it is financed almost entirely by private sponsors.
This time it was the fourth and fifth joint edition of the AEPN awards. In 2016, the winner was ocean sailor Alex Pella in Dénia (Alicante); In 2017, the winner was the sailor and lawyer specialized in regulations, Luis Sáenz Mariscal in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz) and in 2018 it was the Salvamento Marítimo institution in Valencia.
