Gonzalo Melero | Carolyn Cooper | Sportscene - Néstor Pinta and Martín Mozzicafredo became legends at Río Negro winning their 12th title together (13th in total for each). The final stage was held at Viedma on a circuit of four laps between the city's bridges, with eight portages along the 30 km course, crowded with spectators on a great canoeing day. The stage was won by the revelation of this 2013 edition, the U23 K2 formed by Franco Balboa and José Guerrero, who completed a brilliant sprint victory to finish the regatta with four partial wins out of seven and ended up second overall just 26 seconds behind the winners. The Pinta-Mozzicafredo winning time was 14h15’58”.

« » 2 of 6 Fullscreen

After the stage, before facing the well-deserved day off, there was great controversy, when a complaint was officially made against Vega-Scalesi by skipping a mandatory flag when they were trying to recover lost time. After an entire day of investigation, they were penalised with five minutes, practically ruining all their options for overall victory.

The 4th stage (the shortest, only 22 km.), 5th and 6th places were established following the same script from the first day, with the K2s main triplet in the lead and tight sprint finishes. Here the young Balboa and Guerrero began to show their good shape and their top speed, winning two of them, while the other one was by Pinta and Mozzicafredo. Scalesi and Vega only have the initial stage victory, but had always been in the fight for the other stages. However, their penalty relegated them to five and a half minutes in the classification, so finally a monumental surprise-win did not happen.

In K1, Pascual Orellana has won every stage, while the other two podium spots have been occupied by different paddlers, due to the intermittency of Gastón Gaona, who seemed the only one able to follow the leader in the first two stages. This has made all the difference for Orellana who, no surprise, won the 7th stage at Viedma, claiming the single’s title.

As a final firework for their awesome career, Néstor Pinta and Martín Mozzicafredo said today that this was their last appearance at Río Negro. After 12 victories as a couple, they feel it’s time to let some other paddlers grow and be able to follow their footsteps, like Balboa and Guerrero for instance. They are not announcing full retirement, as they still want to represent their country in international races, but it’s time for new generations to take an active part in the history of the Río Negro Regatta.

NOTE SPORTSCENE - There are only two or three women racing in this regatta. One lady in the K1 and one or two in the mixed K2. For this reason we are not reporting on their progress for which we apologise.

Event website: www.regatadelrionegro.com.ar/prensa.php

Néstor Pinta gives medal to Carolyn Cooper

Hero Néstor Pinta gave his medal to Sportscene Contributor and photographer Carolyn Cooper to say thank you for all her excellent work. She cried like a baby, so happy... People really appreciated Carolyn came over to Argentina all the way from Australia and she made many friends. One of the organisers Carlos says:

Carolyn, muchas gracias por aceptarme como tu amigo, ademas muy agradecido por el acompañamiento en la regata y lo profesional que sos, un abrazo grande