Sailing: Chase Cooper Finishes 10th In Brazil

April 1, 2013

The 2013 IODA South American Championships concluded on Saturday under sunny skies in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Officials were able to complete 9 races during the week with only one race completed on the final day due to light winds.

The Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association [BODA] sent a 5 sailor team consisting of qualifiers Chase Cooper, Peter Dill, Benn Smith, Ceci Wollmann and Mikey Wollmann. High Performance Coach Martin Jenkins accompanied the team along with Team leader Leslie Wollmann and Country Rep Gretchen Dill.

Chase Cooper photo by Matias Capizzano:

cooper 13

14 year old Chase Cooper continued his strong international pace, finishing 5th in the final race and ending the regatta in 10th place overall amongst the 144 boat fleet. The RBYC and Sandys Boat Club sailor carded six top ten finishes, four of which were in the top five. Ceci Wollmann finished in 56th place, improving each day and recorded five top 30 finishes.

She was also the 13th female sailor in the fleet. Brother Mikey Wolmann was the next Bermudian in 76th place, his best finish being a 9th. Benn Smith’ best finish was a 17th, finishing the event in 104th overall. Peter Dill’s best finish was 21st, ending the regatta in 117th. Ivan Shestapolov from the USA was the overall winner and 12 year old Gabriel Lopes from Brazi was crowned the 2013 IODA South American Champion. We should see both sailors in Bermuda in July for the 2013 Opti North Americans.

Cooper’s finish was the best showing for a Bermuda sailor at the South American Championships since 2005. The young sailor joins an exclusive group of local top 10 IODA SA finishers, Sean Bouchard, Josh Greenslade, Cameron Pimentel and Jesse Kirkland.

The full results are here.

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