Valentino Blewett wins first medal at a major Olympic class iQFoil international competition

Canadian sailor Valentino Blewett from Whistler, B.C., won his first medal in a major international event © Sailing Energy / iQFOiL International Class

Canadian sailor Valentino Blewett from Whistler, B.C., won his first medal in a major international event, Saturday, when he collected a bronze medal in the Men's U19 category at the Olympic class iQFoil Youth & Junior European Championships in Varkiza, Greece.

Through the 21 races in which he took part at the competition held from Sunday to Saturday, the 18-year-old sailor finished 10 times in the top-10, results which included four wins, and he therefore qualified in fourth position for the Saturday's Final Series, which was contested by the top 10 sailors in the standings following the Qualifying and Elimination series.

After taking part in Saturday's semifinal and final races, Valentino Blewett climbed up one spot, going from the fourth position he previously held to third, which earned him a bronze medal. That was his first-ever medal at a major international competition.

"It's been a very long and complicated week," said Valentino Blewett. "I had a few mishaps along the way, including breaking my boom handle in the second race and my front wing, but I'm happy with how it played out. Now on to the next one."

A far from scary performance on Halloween day

Blewett's fourth position before Saturday's Final Series allowed him to qualify directly for the semifinal race, while positions six to 10 had to go through the quarterfinals, with the top two from that round joining positions 3-4-5 after the Elimination series.

And Blewett's performances were far from scary on Saturday, on Halloween day. Blewett started out by winning the semifinal race and that qualified him for the Final races, which included the top 2 sailors from the semifinals as well as positions 1-2 following the Elimination series.

In the Grand Final, the first athlete to collect two match points, which were attributed to positions 1-2 after the Elimination series and to a winner of any of the races from the Final Series, was declared the winner. The final overall ranking was determined based on the number of match point, or the ranking of the last race held if there is a tie.

Starting out with no match point, Blewett recorded a fourth-position result in the first race, followed by a win and then a third-place finish in race #3, which was the last race to be held because Kfir Nov from Israel won the race and therefore earned his second match point.

Because there was a tie between all the other sailors who had one point, the rest of the ranking was considered to be part of the final podium, including third place for Blewett, earning him the bronze.

Leon Jankowski from Poland won the silver medal.