Sunday 17 January 2016

Río Negro, final stage: Pinta and Mozzicafredo reign over Río Negro for the 13th time. Alonso claims his first victory

Río Negro saw yesterday afternoon  the final of the XL edition of its Regatta with the traditional stage between San Javier and Viedma, with the arrival to a crowded river promenade full of people who could enjoy a great sunny day by the river.

Néstor Pinta and Martín Mozzicafredo celebrate their record 13th absolute victory in Río Negro. Photo: DeViedma.info

In the race itself, no surprises. The last stage followed the expected script. On the entrance to Viedma there was a leading group of five boats, where Balboa and Guerrero marked the pace downstream, looking for the buoy where they would have to return back to Viedma to face the finish line upstream.

It was clear that they were tightening the pace and the group started losing units. Finally, three K2s faced the sprint in front of the crowd at the Viedma shore.

Balboa and Guerrero, with head wind and water quite bumpy by the continuous passage of boats, managed to bring out their strength and became again winners of the final stage (four partial wins by two of their rivals) over Pinta / Mozzicafredo and Muñoz / Roth. The Patagones paddlers, second this time, also entered raising their arms celebrating their thirteenth overall victory, fourteenth in the particular history of each. Balboa and Guerrero were second on the final podium and Roth and Muñoz closed it with the third place overall.

Iván Alonso, meanwhile, with the singles race decided for days, wanted to show in the last stage his true level and offered a great race to the public gathered in both shores, making the whole last stage almost entirely alone, setting a strong pace from the start and entering the sixth boat thorugh the finish line, almost nine minutes over the next K1, again Nicolás Salvo, who won the sprint of the group he was already leading. Iván Alonso gets then his first win in Río Negro, after his second last year, and looking forward to come next year with a partner of guarantee so he could try the assault to the title in K2. It would be a great sign for the race, as the president of the organization himself also confirmed yesterday that they are working to have the presence of a top South African couple next year.

On his side, Nicolás Salvo brilliantly closed his victory in the U23 category and was also the second K1 in the overall ranking.

In these links you can see the results of the final stage and overall standings:
STAGE
FINAL RESULTS

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