Lewis competes in first sailing event since February

Trinidad and Tobago sailor and Olympian Andrew Lewis finished in sixth place in his event at the Canarian Sailing Olympic Week in Las Palmas, Spain – his first competitive event since February.

Lewis, who qualified for his third Olympic Games on January 25, generally competes in the men’s single-handed dinghy event.

He will represent TT at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan and has represented the country at the 2012 games in London and the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

He returned to his training base in Tenerife, Spain in early November to continue training with his coach Javier Hernandez.

Canarian Sailing Olympic Week ran from December 4 to 8.

The type of boat he uses is called the Laser. It is lightweight, has a two-part, free-standing mast and a sleeved sail.

His category was class seven as outlined by the ILCA (International Laser Class Association).

He was one of five non-Spain nationals, also competing against sailors from El Salvador, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Czech Republic.

Lewis finished sixth with 87 points and Niels Broekhuizen of the Netherlands won with 25 points.

Twenty sailors competed in total.

Speaking with Newsday on Wednesday, Lewis said this race was the “ideal way” to get back into the groove of being in competition mode.

“I never knew this would be the first race I would compete in.

“Everything was really ideal – the timing, ability to spend a couple weeks out here preparing, training… It’s very hard to train alone so once I was granted the exemption to leave TT, I came to Tenerife and we spent four weeks preparing.”

But while he is dissatisfied with his results, he said he is using it as a lesson. He also said it felt great to race again after so long.

“I know my talent, I had the ability to win but (in) sports it’s just a lot of close competitions…My edge was not where I would have liked it to be.

“Most of my competitors were still able to race in July, August, down to October. So a lot of them had a couple more races under their belt than I did…Sailing has been thriving across the world.”

He said he will be doing a lot more recalculation and try his best to learn from this experience.

“I have five more big competitions leading up to the games. So when the Olympics comes around, I’ll be very seasoned, marinated and ready to race and work towards bringing home my best result ever.”

He said his next major competition will occur from late January to early February in 2021.

In an Instagram post, he said, “Win, learn or draw the fundamental thing we must all understand is the world of sport is a manmade created emotion. One I love and respect so very much. Well sailed, champion.”