Adriana Penruddocke will be competing at the Paris Olympics next year after sealing her qualifying spot at the sailing regatta in Algarrobo, Chile.

Penruddocke saved one of her best performances in the Ilca 6 class for last, finishing sixth in her final race and ending up with 79 points, which gave her 29 points in hand of Charlotte Webster of the Cayman Islands, her nearest challenger for the second North American Olympic spot available at these Games.

The delighted young sailor was aiming for her first Olympic experience to be in Los Angeles in 2028, but is delighted that it will be coming four years earlier than planned.

“I’m really happy to have qualified the country for the Olympics,” Penruddocke said after exiting the water.

“I’m so happy with my overall performance and the final race was my best of the week. I’m just so happy.”

While Penruddocke fulfilled her Olympic aspirations, Campbell Patton was left disappointed after finishes of fifteenth and eleventh in his final two races left him in twelfth of the 22 competitors.

At the start of the day, Patton was in the hunt for a Paris spot, sitting just three points off a qualification place, but a poor first race, his worst of the regatta put him on the back foot and he was unable to fight back in his final race in Chile.

Bermuda’s last competitor at the Pan American Games was Dage Minors, who lined up for the 1,500m on an emotional night at the National Stadium.

As Minors was warming up on the track for his race, local legend Martina Weil received her gold medal after winning the 400 metres a day earlier.

A rousing rendition of the national anthem stirred the soul but may have affected Minors, who was disappointed with a twelfth-place finish.

The middle-distance runner started to lose touch with the main pack with a lap and a half left to run and was left to jog home a distance behind the rest of the field, with the race won by Canadian Charles Philibert-Thiboutot.

The performance was below Minors’s expectations and an explanation was not forthcoming as he refused to speak to the awaiting media post-race.