Young Brazilian Leads The Way At Optimist South Americans

At the midway stage of the Optimist South American Championship it is local favourite Gabriel Lopes (BRA) who leads the way in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

With a south westerly breeze from 8-10 knots the Brazilian took two bullets out of three races on the opening day of racing. His superb start gave him a platform to work on and despite a less than impressive second day which saw him post an 8-26-2 scorecard, discarding the 26th, he remains in front on 15 points.

Lopes is eight clear of America’s Ivan Shestopalov (USA) who notched up his second bullet on the second day of racing whilst Bermuda’s Chase Cooper is third on 27 points.

Tiago Quevedo (BRA) had an excellent day and moved up from 30th place to 6th with two bullets and his worst result from the first race now discarded.

Leading the girls division in the mixed fleet is Clara Vignati (ARG) on 50 points. However she only leads on countback as she is tied with Francesca Foronda (PER).

The third day in Brazil will see teams duel in team racing.

Full results.