In the wake of the final World Cup of 2023, the Olympic qualification rankings will be frozen in place until the first World Cup of 2024 takes place in Napier, New Zealand, in February.
However, one pathway into the Olympic Games remains very much alive and kicking. One of the more exciting aspects of the qualification process is the New Flag system. One New Flag slot is available per gender for each of the five continental associations (Europe, Asia, Americas, Africa and Oceania).
To earn a New Flag place at the Games, an individual must be the highest ranked athlete from their continent and race for a country that has not already qualified an athlete of the same gender to Paris. The Mixed Team Relay receives the first allocation of slots with the individual Olympic rankings coming next.
The New Flags are the third step and any countries that have taken a slot in the first two parts are not eligible. You can read more about the Olympic qualification procedure here.
In addition, an athlete must be in the top-180 of the world rankings to receive a New Flag place. With Continental Cups still running in November, the New Flag race remains active as athletes chase one another up and down the world rankings.
In this article, we will assess the European male New Flag slot and see which candidates could be in place to claim it at the end at the Paris Olympics.
The incumbent is Felix Duchampt of Romania. Ranked 70th in the world, Duchampt has 1681 points (rounded to the nearest integer) to his name. Formerly of France, Duchampt switched his sporting nationality to Romania in November 2019. He is a World Cup medallist, with three silvers and a bronze to his name.
In 2023, he has also put up some good performances at the World Cup level. A 5th place at the Weihai World Cup stands as his best result of the season while he also finished 9th at the World Cup in Brasilia. Those two results really helped to buy Duchampt some breathing space in the New Flag hunt.
His closest challenger is Vitali Vorontsov of Ukraine. Vorontsov is ranked 111th in the world with 1231 points and received a handy bump after winning Americas Cup silver medals in Salinas and Chinchiná. The man that beat him in the latter, though, was none other than Felix Duchampt.
Right behind Vorontsov is Panagiotis Bitados. The Greek athlete stands 113th in the world rankings with 1223 points. Bitados, though, could overtake Vorontsov without taking part in a race.
The crucial point to note is that Bitados only made his first international start in 2023. As a result he has no points to his name from the “previous” period.
The world rankings are split into two periods: the “current” (the immediate twelve months prior to today’s date, so up to 52 weeks ago) and the “previous” (the subsequent twelve months prior, so weeks 53 to 104). Points in the previous period are worth one-third of their value in the current period to reflect the time that has passed.
Whereas Duchampt has six current scores and five previous scores, and Vorontsov has six of each, Bitados only has six current scores.
Having not raced internationally before 2023, Bitados should have additional reduced value-scores added to his name simply from the passage of time.
Four of Bitados’ current scores came before the end of May 2023. As such, they will be added to his previous scores by the end of May 2024, which stands as the end of the qualification window.
Should he also add further scores to his current period total in 2024, he could make a giant leap forward and potentially overhaul Duchampt.
Bitados also won three African Cup silver medals in 2023. Together they amount to a little over 630 points. A 4th place finish at the World U23 Championships and an 11th place at the Karlovy Vary World Cup have likewise done his chances a lot of good.
To catch Duchampt, the Greek athlete will need more of the same.
The final man in the top-150 of the world rankings with a shot of taking the men’s European New Flag slot is Gregor Payet of Luxembourg. Payet is ranked 145th with 1019 points and so has over 600 points to close to Duchampt. His Olympic qualification is actually a lot higher; he is ranked 85th in that regard.
A 9th place in Weihai stands as Payet’s best current score. A 16th place at the Vina del Mar World Cup also stands as his only other score of over 100 points. As such, he has an uphill task to catch Duchampt.
