(Toronto, ONT, Canada)- After six days of intense competition, the
highly anticipated sailing finals took place in the inner harbour in
front of downtown Toronto’s most popular urban beaches— Sugar Beach. Set
against Toronto’s skyline, spectators cheered in particular for their
hometown favorite, Terry McLaughlin, who was sailing in the J/24 class
series. In the end, McLaughlin’s fourth in the J-24 medal race Sunday
enabled his team to claim the silver medal on the final day of the
sailing regatta at the XVII Pan American Games in Toronto.
Sailing
off the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, McLaughlin, a graduate of Queen’s
University and silver medalist in Flying Dutchman class at the 1984
Olympics, ended the 13-race competition with 39 points, 12 points behind
gold medalist Matias Pereira of Argentina. The Argentineans’
gold-medal winning team consisted of the skipper Pereira, Guillermo
Bellinotto, Federico Ambrus and Juan Pereyra.Pereira, who won half of the 12 races in the preliminary series, was third in Sunday’s final race, which was won by Brazil’s John Spear King. It was the only win of the regatta for Spear King, who finished fifth overall.
Matias Seguel of Chile, who closed to within striking distance of McLaughlin with four consecutive top-two finishes on Thursday and Friday, was fifth Sunday to maintain his position for the bronze medal.
McLaughlin’s crew consisted of David Jarvis, David Ogden and Sandy Andrews. "It's great to sail in Toronto," said McLaughlin. "I live on Toronto Island, I rode my bike over every day! I felt like it was just another finals in the York Cup, which is a match race and regatta here. It felt very normal for me." For more J/24 Pan Am Games sailing information
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