www.bviolympics.com CAC Games CARTAGENA, Colombia—Bryshaun Scatliffe and Sean Anderson would like to forget their respective debuts in the 20th Central American Games, but will likely remember their poor starts for different reasons.
For the BVI teenagers—carrying the territory’s banner in the games for the first time since 1993—one ended up in the hospital while the other threw up after dehydrating, but both are optimistic of better performances when racing continues at 10 a.m. today off the Cartagena coast.
Scatliffe was halfway thought his first laser race. After rounding the windward mark, in attempting a roll jibe, he realized that he hadn’t released his boom vang. Because his boom vang was low when he tried to duck under it, it hit him in the port side of his head and he got knocked out for a few seconds. He spent the afternoon on the Naval Hospital awaiting a check out.
“This has happened before this is nothing new to me,” he said. “But, if it was a bigger boat, I would have been mashed up because at that time, the winds were picking up.” Scatliffe said he’s looking for the same type of wind in today’s races.
Anderson, who placed ninth, said it wasn’t the start he expected in the regatta. The day he said started off with no wind, which later picked up then everything went downhill from there. “There were good racing conditions, but, they weren’t good for me today,” he noted. “I was dehydrating, didn’t have enough water and the sun was getting to me. I wasn’t’ prepared because I got there later than planned and had to go right on the water. I even threw up.”
Anderson said he’s hoping to complete all of today’s races. He has to fix some things on his sail, and he’s hoping for good conditions. “The guys out there are good, but, I don’t think they are that good,” he said. “But, we are going to see what happens. I have to get comfortable, have a good sleep and see how good they really are.”
Coach Ewan Anderson described the day as frustrating. “It was a long day waiting at the hospital for a neurologist for young Bryshaun and that was a lot of races missed, unfortunately,” Anderson said. “Tomorrow, we’ll go back with a bang. The guys are having an early night. They’ll be up early in the morning, get out there and look through all their equipment. I want to have a boat ready just for me so I can go back and forth on the courses.”
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