South American Optimist Championship Mar del Plata
In the Nations Cup, the very strong members of the US army were sweeping all their rivals from Canada and Bermuda, reaching the final two teams from the United States between which USA1 prevailed with authority over USA2.
In the South American field things were much more contested and 16 teams from Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay and Chile battled to reach the grand final in a double elimination bracket. The PER1 team showed a high level and leaving URU1, ARG2, BRA1 and ARG3 on the way, they went directly into the final without losing any match. The other finalist would be precisely ARG2 that after beating URU2 they lost against the Peruvians and had to continue on the long road of the playoffs beating BRA3, CHI1, ARG3 and ARG1 respectively.
The final consists of 3 races and they were all very anxious, so much so that in the first start there were several passes, one of them an Argentine helmsman who returned late to the line and thus the Peruvians scored the first victory. The second regatta was a duel of the titans, Argentina had been dominating, but in the last meters Peru turned it around. Everything seemed defined but, seconds after crossing the line, a Peruvian competitor received a penalty from the referees that forced him to rehabilitate himself by turning, thus dropping his team by very little.
Remember that in the team race 4 boats of one team face against 4 of another in a very short course refereed by judges who follow the actions from the water and raise red or green flags before each protest of the competitors. If someone commits a foul, he must pay it by making spins. With the score tied 1 to 1, a final tie-breaker regatta was run. Once again the flag of the past was raised by the RO Federico Ambrus. Two boats (one from Argentina and the other from Peru) returned but the flag did not go down: that means that there was a third past that continued to compete and would be disqualified. The regatta was again very close and Peru also turned it around the end, but when they crossed the finish they realized that the past was a Peruvian helmsman.
From there, the joy was all of Argentina: everyone jumped into the water and in the background was the fans who from the breakwater did not stop encouraging with flags and songs as if it were a soccer field. The winning team from Argentina was a mix of athletes from San Pedro, Buenos Aires, Rosario and Mar del Plata (Francina Paz, Delfina Kuttel, Julieta Benedetto, Lucas Vogt and Lucas Contardi Penetreath) while the runner-up team from Peru was made up of Isabella Suazo, Diego Riofrio, Ana Sofia Bedoya, Arantza Valdiviezo and Salvador Marchena. Thus, in a day of great emotion, the team championship ended, but tomorrow the action of the individual competition will continue with more regattas in the open sea.
