Competitions || July has been a successful month for Algarve sailors.
Just as 13-year-old Daniela Miranda from Vila Real de Santo António was on her way to registering the best results of a Portuguese competitor at the 2014 European Optimist Championship in Ireland, Portimão sailor João Pinto, 33, became yet again the national champion of the Access 2.3 Championship for disabled athletes in the Azores.
While Pinto, representing Vela Solidária, won the eight regattas that were held throughout the competition’s three days (July 11-13) and became Portugal’s national Access 2.3 champion for the second year in a row, Guerreiro, representing the Associação Naval do Guadiana, finished in a respectable 18th spot in the Golf Fleet Girls category of her competition and was the 14th best European sailor.
Both athletes’ results were praised by their teams.
Some may even remember João Pinto from a story the Resident ran in April, when he decided to sail singlehandedly along the Algarve coast to show others in his position that “anything is possible, as long as you try”.
With yet another national title under his belt, both the sailor and Vela Solidária have revealed that their next goal could be the qualifying rounds of 2016’s Paralympics.
