Ten golds for Argentina at South American Champs

The beautiful Laguna de la Luz in Curauma, Valparaiso saw Argentina take the overall winners’ cup while Chile picked up the top junior and top lightweight cup. The nations of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela took part. El Salvador and Mexico also competed as part of the junior Pan American events.

Argentina’s top position came after gaining a tally of ten gold, five silver and two bronze medals. Ariel Suarez and Christian Rosso helped with two of these gold medals by being part of the winning men’s quadruple sculls and also the men’s double sculls. Suarez and Rosso’s success comes on the back of finishing fourth in the world at the London Olympic Games in the men’s double.

Suarez and Rosso were the most successful South American crew at the London Olympics and they were two of 13 London Olympic rowers who competed at the South American Rowing Championships.
Maria Gabriela Best served Argentina well by winning the women’s single sculls and then joining with Lucia Palermo to win the women’s double sculls. Best is a two-time Olympian who competed in the single in Beijing and the pair in London.

Four-time Olympian, Santiago Fernandez of Argentina did a 2012 comeback in time to qualify for the London in the men’s single sculls and he showed that he still is the top South American in the single by winning the event with a handy six second margin over second-placed Anderson Nocetti of Brazil.

Chile finished second on the overall medals table earning four golds, eight silvers and one bronze medal. The majority of Chile’s success came in the junior events but they also picked up gold in the lightweight men’s four and lightweight men’s pair. Rodrigo Munoz Santibanez and Felipe Cardenas Morales featured in both of these boats. Both Santibanez and Morales are on the Chilean national team.

In the men’s pair Chile’s Felipe Leal and Oscar Vasquez had a very tight battle to the line, and one of the closest finishes of the regatta, with Diego Lopez and Joaquin Iwan. Lopez and Iwan won by half a second. Leal and Vasquez then went on to take a second silver for Chile in the men’s four.

Third on the medals table was Brazil with four golds, three silvers and four bronze medals. The 2011 World Champion in the lightweight women’s single sculls, Fabiana Beltrame easily won the lightweight single to claim a gold for her country. Beltrame has returned to the single after racing in the lightweight women’s double sculls at the London Olympic Games. Beltrame also raced in the women’s double sculls where she finished second with Yanka Vieira Rodrigues de Britto. Rodrigues doubled up on events finishing second in the women’s single sculls.

The regatta included an exhibition event of adaptive rowing with Argentina and Chile participating.

For a full list of results: http://www.worldrowing.com/results