Two young sailors from the Cayman Islands have qualified for Youth Olympic Games places.
Florence Allan and Pablo Bertran will represent Cayman in the Youth Olympics. They were part of a team that included Jesse Jackson and Shane McDermott who competed at Jensen Beach U.S. Sailing Center, Martin County, Florida in the Byte CII North American Championships over the weekend.
This event was also the continental qualifier for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games to be in August in Nanjing, China.
Twenty-eight competitors from 14 countries vied for four qualifying places for boys and girls.
Bertran sailed an extremely strong regatta, taking a first and three second places in the 10 race event. He finished with a convincing second place with 34 points and qualified Cayman ahead of the British Virgin Islands with 50 points, the Bahamas with 51 points and the U.S. Virgin Islands with 54 points. Jackson was 10th with 66 points and McDermott took 14th place with 92 points.
Allan sailed a consistent regatta, fighting it out with arch-rivals Ceci Wollmann from Bermuda and Celeste Lugtmeijer from the Dominican Republic who had qualified their countries at last year’s World Championships.
Allan took the top qualifying spot ahead of Paige Clarke from USVI, Abigail Affoo from Trinidad and Paula Pelayo from Mexico.
The team has been together for over a year training hard for this event. Coach Raph Harvey has had them out on the water at every opportunity, often coming in after dark.
The Cayman Islands Olympic Committee has supported their travel to three other overseas regattas. They will now be putting all their efforts into improving their competitive edge ahead of travelling to China in August.
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