Hard work pays off for young sailors

Trinidad and Tobago’s Andrew Lewis finished fourth overall out of a field of 89 sailors to lead the contingent’s superb performances in the 16th Sailing Week of the Schoelcher in Martinique. Lewis lost out on a place in the top three to Peruvian Nathalie Zimmerman who finished third behind him in the Nemwil Southern Caribbean Invitational Regatta held in Trinidad in December. The Trinidad and Tobago team competed against sailors from Peru, France, Barbados, Canada, Cuba, St Lucia, the United Kingdom and Sweden among other European countries after two months of training for 30 minutes a week ahead of the competition. Stuart Leighton showed great promise for future competitions when he finished 14th overall in his first regatta. Aaron Barcant, nursing a knee injury finished 24th, Andrew Merry was 30th and Matthew Scott came 39th out of 89 sailors.

Wesley Scott finished fifth overall and Nicholas Knox was ninth in the Benjamin Under-12 category. Bryan Llanos and Alexander Weedon, also in their first international regatta put in a good performance in the mid-fleet standings while in the Laser category 2002 Caribbean Dinghy champ Adrian Affoo finished fourth overall. The 16th Sailing Week of Schoelcher is the largest regatta in the Caribbean with over 113 competitors from the region, South America and Europe in attendance and this was the first time Trinidad and Tobago has sent a contingent of this size to Martinique.