The sailor Lili Skomska (RCNGC) leads the overall rankings at the end of the first day of the Canary Islands Optimist Championship – Canary Islands Day, which brings together 111 young sailors from 5 islands of the archipelago at Puerto Rico beach (Mogán) over the weekend.
Athletes from 8 nautical clubs from La Palma, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Tenerife, and Gran Canaria spend two days of racing and community at the Joaquín Blanco Torrent Sailing School, an emblematic place for Gran Canaria’s light sailing.
Besides Lili, who is the provisional leader of the overall rankings and under-16 female category, the leaders in other categories are: Jorge Pérez (RCNT), in under-16 male; Alberto Medina (RCNT), in under-13 male; Lola Carrión (RCNA), in under-13 female; Luis del Castillo-Olivares (RCNGC), in under-11 male, and Dácil Merino (CM Varadero), in under-11 female.
The wind took time to settle, and after the suspension of a race already started due to a sudden shift (change of direction) with a loss of pressure and a couple of hours waiting in the water, finally, the first and only race could begin around two-thirty in the afternoon with a southeasterly wind between 5 and 6 knots of intensity and a moderate sea, on a typically sunny day of the southwest coast of Gran Canaria.
The Canary Islands Sailing Federation organizes the regatta with sponsorship from Grupo Armas Trasmediterránea and the collaboration of the Canary Islands Government, Mogán City Council, Disa Foundation, Canary Ports, Puerto Rico SA, and the island sailing federations of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
In addition to crowning the Canary Islands champions in the various categories, this is the last regatta that will count towards forming the Canary Technical Team for the Optimist Class, a newly created initiative aiming to provide maximum development opportunities for athletes.
This Sunday, the second and final day of the championship, at least one more race must be held for the regatta to be valid.
