CARTAGENA, Colombia—British Virgin Islands sailors Bryshaun Scatliffe and Sean Anderson had their best day of competition in the 20th Central American and Caribbean Games, just off the Cartagena coast in Colombia.
The 17-year olds got off to a rough start in their games debut, but Scatliffe rebounded to place eight in the Laser Standard class, while Anderson was in good position three quarters of the way in his wind surfing race, when it was cancelled because of a thunder and lightening storm.
“Today was my best day because I was focused, the wind was up, I did what I had to do,” Scatliffe said. “I had a nice start, working from the beginning to the end, hiking out, keeping the boat flat, working on my roll jibes and roll tact and I was right up there. So, I didn’t have any kind of problem today. That is what I need to do the rest of the week to be up there with them. However, we only got one race in because of the bad weather.”
Scatliffe said it’s a good feeling, one he hopes to repeat. “I fell like a young professional, because I’m up there with Olympians and I beat a World Youth Champion from the Dominican Republic today,” he noted. “Antigua’s Olympian Carl James, I was right on him too. He told me today, that I motivated him because I was too close to him. That’s how good I was doing today.”
For Scatliffe, his biggest challenge is the course length, which he said is several times longer than he’s accustomed to. He said it is a good experience.
“Like Bryshaun, today was the best day for me, but I was three quarters of the way through the race when the thunder and lightening, waterspouts and all kinds of things happened, so they cancelled,” Anderson explained. “I was doing great when they cancelled. I was beating a few people which is the best that I’ve been doing so far.”
Anderson said he was disappointed, since he had two bad days and was on his lag leg. “I was on my last leg and I was feeling good,” he said. “I was saying ‘finally, a good race’ when the guys came and told me ‘go to the beach. Go to the beach,’ that was disappointing.”
Anderson said there were six waterspouts, hard thunder and lightening touching the water. ‘It was pretty nasty,” he said. Today he’s looking for the same conditions minus the rain. He said the wind was to his liking because he’s light. “That made me have a good day,” he said.
