El podio nacional lo completa el actual número 1 de Andalucía, Carlos de Bricio
Andalusian Juan Luis Páez has been proclaimed 2024 Spanish Patín a Vela Champion in the waters of the Bay of Cádiz, where the championship organised by the Andalusian Sailing Federation came to an end this weekend with the holding of two final races, faithfully fulfilling the programme with a total of eight. The CN Sevilla sailor adds his third national title after those won in 2009 and 2012, and closes a spectacular month after winning just a week ago the 30th Juan de la Cosa and 53rd El Puerto de Santa María Nautical Week regattas as helmsman of Federico Linares’ boat ‘Brujo’.
With the possibility of a second discard with the eighth test, Páez was already a mathematical winner at the end of the first course in which he added his fourth partial victory in this championship, and whatever happened, he was already the winner, like the great sportsman that he is, he stayed to score a second in the eighth test, in which he was surpassed by the defending champion, the Catalan Oriol Castellá, a sailor who climbed to fourth place overall thanks to the discards of his two penalties and ending with his best day, 2nd and 1st.
The Spanish runner-up position goes to the current Andalusian Patín a Vela champion, Carlos de Bricio, of CN Sevilla, with a 5th place and an 8th place, which he discards. De Bricio has a great, very consistent championship, but he lacked a little more luck in the final stretch to make Páez, his most dangerous rival, even more nervous. The two athletes know each other well, having worked together as crew members on a 49er a few years ago.
With two more points, the overall bronze and the Spanish Veteran Championship goes to Vicente Climent of CDV Bahía de Cádiz, 8th and 3rd. Climent gets his second title after winning the overall and veteran titles in 2013. The three of them close out the podium of the eighty-first edition of the Spanish Patín a Vela Championship, the fourteenth held in Andalusian waters. Castellá sneaks in last place for Ramón Calero with a tie decided on the side of the visitors by his victory in the last race, in which the man from El Puerto had the worst partial of the week. Calero, three-time Spanish champion, finished in fifth place and is runner-up in the Spanish Veteran Championship, a podium completed by Albert Batllería of CN Badalona, eighth overall behind his territorial teammates Jordi Aranega of CN Cubelles and Lea Sitja of Badalona.
Rounding out the top 10 is Rafael Ruiz, also from the Andalusian sailing club and member of the CDV Bahía de Cádiz. The two farewell races were two windward/leeward or pole-sailing races with a wind speed of 200 to 215 knots and a medium speed of 9 knots. Francisco Coro, president of the Andalusian Sailing Federation (FAV) and vice president of the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation (RFEV), was accompanied at sea by Benjamín Ruiz Carmona, manager of Clínicas Beiman, and his wife, Eva Fernández.
After the regatta, the plaques were presented to the Spanish Absolute and Veteran champions, and trophies to the occupants on both podiums, in the courtyard of the Specialized Center for Sports Development of Sailing (CETDV), in an event presided over by Francisco Coro as president of the Andalusian Sailing Federation (FAV) and vice president of the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation (RFEV) together with the councilor delegate for sports of the City Council of El Puerto de Santa María and Andalusian parliamentarian, José Ignacio González Nieto, Benjamín Ruiz and Eva Fernández from Clínicas Beiman, the vice president of ADIPAV, Oriol Carrasco, and Jordi Sánchez from Abordo Watersport.
The 81st Spanish Patín a Vela Championship, the Clínicas Beiman & Abordo Watersport Trophy, was organised by the FAV based at the CETDV, endorsed by the RFEV, with the collaboration of the International Sports Association of the Patín a Vela class (ADIPAV) and the Marina of El Puerto de Santa María, and the main sponsorship of Clínicas Beiman and Abordo Watersport.
https://www.diariodecadiz.es/deportes/juan-luis-paez-vicente-climent_0_2002322009.html