After hanging gold and silver at the South American Games in Asunción, Peruvian sailors Stefano Peschiera and Caterina Romero are getting ready to conquer new podiums for Peru. He, with his sights set on the 2024 Paris Olympics, and she, facing the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile in 2023.
Peschiera added in Encarnación, alternate venue of the games, a new parchment to his already extensive list of recognitions, the South American Boat Championship, an ILCA 7 (former Laser Standard) crew member. For her part, Romero won silver in the female sunfish, a non-Olympic modality, on the same stage.
FAMILY TRADITION
“The competition was tough, especially at the beginning, because we have other Olympic athletes from South America in the competition, some very fast youths, in which conditions there were, which were little wind, a lot of current and quite unstable winds,” said Peschiera. to EFE about his experience in Encarnación.
Although he confesses that his start was not the best, with a third and fourth place among eight competitors on the first day, after eight races he climbed to the podium after managing to maintain “the greatest consistency” in the races. And consistency is perhaps this sportsman’s trademark, as for 27-year-old Peschiera, sailing is a family affair.
He began sailing the waters as a child with his grandfather on an old sailboat, following a tradition of generations that led him, first, to start at the age of 7 in the optimist modality and to jump at the age of 15 to the ILCA 7, in which harvested a gold medal in Guaraní lands.
His career, with which he began to represent Peru at the age of 9 in international championships, has led him to set milestones: the first Peruvian male athlete to qualify for the Rio Olympics in sailing, the first in the history of his country to winning an ILCA 7 South American championship, third in the world in 2021 before going to the Tokyo Olympics and finishing 10th in the world championship held last May in Mexico by 130 competitors.
More recently he won gold at the Bolivarian Games in Santa Marta and in Paraguay. Now, the goal is Paris. However, he anticipates that it would be his last Olympics, since among the plans of this Finance graduate is to continue sailing, but on larger boats.
A SILVER OF GOLD
Romero, also 27, is looking to qualify for the Pan American Games and win a sunfish medal. In Encarnación she finished second, below the Chilean Constanza Olivares. However, her bottom line is golden for her, who started her practice at the age of 9.
«At (the South American Games) in Cochabamba (2018), I won the gold medal; here I got the silver medal, but I still think that here I was better prepared physically, psychologically, “Romero told EFE. After exercising his Sports Administration and Business career for some time, Romero has decided to dedicate himself to his passion.
“I felt like I was missing something and at the end of last year, I said, ‘I’m quitting and I’m going to be 100% dedicated to this.’ And so I did it », added this athlete who receives the support of her family and the Peruvian Sports Institute (IPD). From now on, she bets on the Pan American Games after being fourth -and first woman- in the world championship last September in Italy, below her compatriot Jean Paul De Trazegnies and the Guatemalans David Hernández and Juan Maegli. EFE
