Sunfish South American Championship - Olcese has it in the bag
by Jorge Barreda on 1 Dec 2010
Luis Alberto Olcese in action ISAF
South, Central and Caribbean Sunfish Championship held from November 23 to 27 November at Paracas Perú saw a nice 18 to 20 knot breeze persist in the 2010 edition of the event.
The venue was the beautiful Hotel La Hacienda in Paracas and three spectacular days of racing which included nine races for the 30 sailors from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Italy, Puerto Rico and Perú, all of them seeking for the Continental trophy and one of the three qualification berths that the event gave for the 2011 Pan American Games that is going to be held in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Peruvian Luis Alberto Olcese, once a Laser Olympic sailor who recently was the runner up in the 2010 J24 South American Championship, lead the fleet from the first day and never got off from the first three places, winning the last race and securing the first place overall on his home waters.
This is the third time that Olcese wins the Championship, repeating what he did in 2000 and in 2001, making him the second Peruvian achieving that honor, being the first Jorge Barreda now an International Judge and who now was the PRO of the regatta. Olcese managed to qualify Perú for the 2011 Pan American Games.
Just one point behind finished fellow sailor Alexander Zimmermann also from Perú, he came in second due to equipment failure in the last race forcing him to abandon after being one point ahead of Olcese entering the final race. Brazilian Matheus Dellagnelo came in third and also qualified Brasil for the Pan American Games. Argentinean Francisco Renna showed his skills and finished in fourth place, no matter that this was the first time he sailed a Sunfish. Finally Ignacio Moraga from Chile finished in fifth place securing Chile the third and last berth for Guadalajara 2011.
2010 Sunfish World Champion Jonathan Martinetti from Ecuador finished in the middle of the fleet due to his light weight.
Paracas was considered by many of the sailors one of the nicest places in the world for dinghy sailing.
For more information, please go to: www.sunfishclass.org
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