Cyr nominated for 2019 Pan Am Games

Nine sailors representing five countries competed in the 2019 Kiteboarding Spring Regatta and USA Pan Am Games Athlete qualifier on March 29-31 in San Diego, CA. Hosted by San Diego Yacht Club, Will Cyr will be nominated to represent the USA in the Formula Kite event at the 2019 Pan American Games this July/August in Lima, Peru.

Uruguayan Nico Landauer won overall followed by Cyr in second and Evan Heffernan (USA) in third. As the top USA competitor, Cyr claimed the qualifier.

“After the countless training hours the last few months, it feels amazing to see a real payoff to the hard work,” notes Cyr. “Since Nico Landauer already claimed a berth for Uruguay, instead, I match raced Kai Calder and Evan Heffernan who equally deserved a spot in the Games – we pushed each other hard all weekend!”

Cyr has been training to earn a spot in the Games extensively in 2018, specifically at the Hydofoil Pro Tour regatta venues in Mexico and San Francisco. For the past three months, Cyr has trained every day and logged at least 100 miles per week.

“The hours have certainly helped, but the real success I think is how I’ve reevaluated how I do a lot of things on the racecourse and reorganized my strategies,” explains Cyr. “Looking forward, I plan to chase the wind most weekends to get to the breeziest conditions possible – to replicate the conditions I expect at the Games.”

The competition was based off of Crown Cove State Beach in South San Diego Bay with the event benefiting from 70 degree weather, flat water, and mid-range winds.

Day one started off with six races. Landauer and Cyr lead the field with a steady top finishes, trading firsts and seconds the majority of the time. Not far behind on day one was Kai Calder (USA), making his way into the top three a handful of times throughout the regatta.

Seven races were held on day two in the windiest conditions of the series with winds averaging 14 knots. Heffernan took his stand on the top of the scoresheet, pulling ahead of Cyr and Landauer in several races, continuing the trend in day three. Cyr was able to keep his spot in second place, but not without a fight from Heffernan taking three bullets. Landauer, however, finished first in four races on the last day, putting him 11 points in the lead. After six races on day three, 19 races had been sailed overall.

“Saturday’s last set of races were what I needed to seal the first place and match race the second place rider to keep him behind,” said Landauer. “Sunday was the best day. It was all about having fun and going fast since I had a good lead. I ended up winning four out of five races… To win, I sailed fast and clean with the minimum mistakes.”

Event details – Results

Source: Casey Allocco, SDYC