Wednesday, November 1st.- On the fifth day of sailing competitions in Algarrobo, there was activity for the Nacra 17, 49er, male’s and female’s FX, male’s and female’s Sunfish, and ILCA (6 and 7) classes. However, specialists in Lightning, Snipe, IQ Foil, and Formula Kite had a day off. There was no competition in El Quisco either.

The day at Playa Algarrobo remained sunny, but rain arrived towards the end of the day, leading to the cancellation of the last races for the Sunfish class.

The Brazilian duo of Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze, two-time Olympic champions (Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020), leads the FX class with 13 points in nine races (one discard), after achieving first, second, and third-place finishes in the three races of the day. Grael and Kunze are clear favorites to secure one of the spots reserved for the class at the Paris 2024 Olympics. They are followed by the United States (Stephanie Roble and Margaret Shea) with 15 points and Canada (Alexandre Ten Hove and Mariah Millen) with 18.

"We passed the halfway point of the races today, and tomorrow is the last day before reaching the medal race. We came here to qualify for the games, that's our mission, so we prepared well not to miss out on Paris," said Brazilian skipper Martine Grael.

"The waters are cold, but the place is perfect for sailing. We've had great wind, waves, and perfect conditions, and today we sailed a bit further inside the bay, which was a bit more challenging," added her teammate Kahena Kunze.

"We're here to qualify for the country (Brazil), above all, we're focusing on that, but if a medal comes later, that's great. Step by step, we're trying to sail day by day as a team and treating it as training for the Olympic Games," she added.

In the 49er class, which also offers two Olympic tickets, the United States (Ian Barrows and Hans Henken) leads with 16 points. Brazil (Marco Soffiatti and Gabriel Silva) is second with 25 points, and Uruguay (Hernán Umpierre and Fernando Diz) is third with 27 points.

In the Nacra 17 mixed class, which offers two tickets to the Olympic Games, nine out of 12 races have been completed. The Argentine duo of Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco has won eight of the nine races and has a total of 8 points. The United States (Sarah Newberry and David Liebenberg) has 18 points, and the Brazilian team (Samuel Reis and Gabriela Nicolino) has 20 points.

In ILCA 6, Erika Reineka from the United States maintains her lead after eight races out of a total of 10, with one discard, scoring 8 points. She is followed by Sarah Douglas from Canada with 16 points and Luciana Cardozo from Argentina with 23 points.

In ILCA 7 (also eight races), the table is led by the Peruvian Stefano Peschiera with 19 points, followed by the Chilean Clemente Seguel with 27 points, and the triple Pan American champion (Rio 2007, Toronto 2015, and Lima 2019), Juan Ignacio Maegli from the Independent Athletes' Team, with the same number of points.

It's worth noting that the ILCA class awards four out of the 22 spots for Paris.

In the female’s Sunfish class, after eight races out of 10 with one discard, Catherina Romero from Peru maintains her lead with 7 points, having won her sixth consecutive race. Philipine Van Aanholt from Aruba has 18 points, and María José Poncell from Chile has 19 points, rounding out the top three.

In the male’s Sunfish class, with an equal number of races, there is a close battle for the top spot. The top three, all with 16 points, are the Canadian Lee Parkhill, the Chilean Diego González, and the Peruvian Jean Paul de Trazegnies. The North American athlete leads due to a higher number of victories (4).

The preliminary competitions will continue on Thursday from 1:00 p.m., and on Saturday, the top five qualifiers will compete for the medals.


Written by Esteban Gómez - Rodrigo Parragué; translated by Andrés Castro / Photosport
Photo by Matias Capizzano/Santiago 2023 / Photosport