In August, the International Olympic Committee made two clarifications to the ISAF Qualification System for the 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition.

The updated Olympic Qualification System is published on the ISAF website, and the clarifications are as follows:

1. The first one relates to the “hierarchical order of qualification” in Section D which the IOC has confirmed is now the same wording for all sports and was introduced to leave no room for interpretation of where a quota place will be allocated and reallocated. Specifically here it means that, even if a continental qualification event takes places before the 2015 World Championships the latter takes precedent in terms of allocation. Therefore, the IOC has added a sentence stating “irrespective of the actual calendar of events” to clarify this.

It now reads: “The qualification events are listed in hierarchical order of qualification, irrespective of the actual calendar of the events.”

2.    Secondly, with regards to the potential scenario where no NOC competes in an event at the Continental Qualification Event, the IOC has reworded the last sentence in Section D – “Qualification Pathway” – “Qualification Places”. The main reason for this is that it would not actually be a reallocation but an allocation issue as in the first place not able to allocate at all.

It now reads: “In the event that there are no eligible NOCs at any of the  continental  qualification events above, the quota place(s) will be allocated to the same event, irrespective of continent, at the 2015 World Championships.”

Source: ISAF