CSN 2014 Sailors of the Year: Billy Besson & Marie Riou

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Images Jesus Renedo / SailingEnergy.com,  Billy Besson. — 2013 CSN Sailor ot he Year was awarded to Patrick Demesmaeker over Billy Besson in a poll we did, after Henry winning the F16 Worlds at age 12 with Jeroen van Leeuwen.

Besson & Marie Riou dominated the first Nacra 17 Olympic season, crowning the year with the 2013 Worlds Title. Billy also grabbed in 2013 the F18 Worlds at Grossetto together with Jeremie Lagarrigue plus a participation in the Hydros C-Class foiling championships where they ended 2nd behind Frank Cammas-Groupama team.

In 2014 Billy and Marie continued their Nacra 17 reign with yet another World Title at Santander.
This weekend they grabbed the 2014 Abu Dhabi ISAF cup just to keep winning pace 2014.
Analyzing Lange-Carranza  past N17 World titles performance (2nd) I ended saying to anyone asking  that the Arg team were indeed ‘#1’ of the fleet, as the French crew is currently sailing in another level, they are simply untouchable right now.

On top of that the French Olympic Squad has 3 more top level crews to define who is going to Rio: Ogerau-Vandame, Vairuex-Audinet (2nd & 3rd at Abu Dhabi) plus Franck Cammas.

Still much to go and final objective is Rio (where they won the Test event also) but right now Besson & Riou are showing they are the crew to beat towards the 2016 podium.

Their 2014 level and dominance plus their 2013 achievements put these two at the top of the list earning the ‘Catsailingnews 2014 Sailor of the Year’ award.