Dominican kitesurfing made history by qualifying for the first time for the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile

Dominican kitesurfing made history by qualifying for the first time at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile in the kitesurfing modality, in an event held in Cabarete over the weekend. More than 17 countries and 30 world-class athletes competed in the competition to prove they are the best in this rising sport. Deury Corniel will be the Dominican representative at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile, leading the Pan American qualifying list followed by Canada with Logan Sutherland and Argentina with Federico Aguilar in the men's branch. Kirstyn Obrien from the United States, Elena Lengwiler from Canada and Maria Reís from Brazil were selected in the women's branch in both the Pan American and general competition. For the Dominican Sailing Federation (FEDOVELA), this event is of great importance for Dominican sport, since it will be the first time that the country is represented in this discipline at the Pan American Games.

Raúl Aguayo, vice president of the Federation, commented that, despite the difficult conditions of the waves and wind that occurred in Cabarete throughout the competition, they managed to develop eight tests that demonstrated that even with the less favorable conditions, the beaches of Cabarete continue to being the best for kitesurfing. The high performance of the Dominican athlete, Corniel, has allowed him to stand out within this discipline, where the other countries were represented by their best competitors worldwide, who as true professionals respected all the security measures that were presented during the event due to wave conditions.

In the Pan-American division, the Dominican Corniel led the ranking list, followed by Sutherland from Canada and Aguilar from Argentina in the men's division. In the female branch, the selected ones were Obrien from the United States, Lengwiler from Canada and Reís from Brazil, both in the Pan-American and in the general competition. In the all-around competition, the men's results were Milkhail Monikov, Christian Manev and Neil de Jaham, from Vanuatu, Bulgaria and France, respectively. In summary, this historic event is a great opportunity for Dominican sports and its presence in the Pan American Games in this discipline shows the great potential that the country has in nautical sports.