CARRANZA Storms To Womenâ??s Title

A terrific final day display saw Argentina’s Cecilia CARRANZA record three top ten finishes in the 80 strong mixed Laser Radial fleet, to take off the Women’s title at the ISAF Grade C1 Laser Central And South American Championships in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

CARRANZA went into the final day trailing the leading woman, Serena AMATO (ARG), by 20 points. However, where AMATO struggled with finishes of 36,23,20, CARRANZA flourished, recording fourth, sixth and ninth places to lift the Women’s title and gain big points in the run up to the next release of the ISAF World Sailing Rankings on 19 April. CARRANZA‘s display also earnt her fourth place in the open competition, and a winning margin over the second placed woman of 24 points.

Second place went to AMATO by a whisker. Florencia CERUTTI (ARG) scored finishes of 11,13,7 on the final day to tie on points with AMATO, only to lose out on countback. Brazil’s Adriana KOSTIW claimed fourth place, with another Brazilian, Caroline BEJAR, rounding out the top five.

Young Stars

Two young sailors who impressed in Punta del Este were Chile’s 16 year old Arantza GUMUCIO and Peru’s Tania ZIMMERMANN, 18, both of whom competed at the Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship in Korea last year, in the case of ZIMMERMANN, thanks to funding from the ISAF Athlete Participation Programme (APP). GUMUCIO counted an eighth place finish amongst the 80 strong mixed fleet, which saw her take seventh place in the women’s standings, whilst ZIMMERMANN also scored an impressive best finish of 11 and made the women’s top ten, just behind Cuba’s Maricela DUARTE.

Like CARRANZA, Brazil’s Guilherme Barbosa LIMA also had a cracking final day to take the open Laser Radial title by twelve points from Fabio DUTRA (BRA), with Argentina’s Federico BUIATTI third.

The Yacht Club Punta del Este are hosting the Laser Central And South American Championships from 7-16 April. After the conclusion of the Laser Radial series yesterday, the battle amongst the Laser and Laser 4.7 sailors gets underway today.

Top Ten Women Results
(Racing In Mixed Fleet)