Beach Sprint’s Debut at the South American Games Cut Short by Plant Invasion

Only the women’s solo competition was able to be completed at the first appearance of beach sprint at the South American Games this week in Santa Fe, Argentina. Peru’s Pamela Noya won the inaugural gold medal in the discipline, followed by Paraguay’s Fiorela Rodriguez and Brazil’s Ana Freire with silver and bronze, respectively. But the rest of the events were subsequently canceled due to an invasion of aquatic plants.

While time trials were successfully completed on the first day of competition, the following day, organizers delayed all knockout races by one hour due to the problem of plants getting tangled around the boats. They then managed to run the women’s solo, although five out of the eight competitors suffered problems with the vegetation in the water. As a result, the rest of the medals were assigned according to the ranking from time trials.

Delays or cancellations due to weather are relatively frequent in beach sprint, but this may be the first time competition has been canceled due to plants,. However, it is not the first time that Santa Fe itself has had to handle similar situations. The Laguna Setubal river in Argentina, where the beach sprint competition at the Santa Fe 2026 South American Games took place, has struggled to deal with large floating masses of aquatic plants over recent years. Last May, for example, the Argentine army was called in to help clear a blockage of vegetation caught up against the pillars of the two bridges that separate the Laguna Setubal from the Santa Fe river.

The beach sprint podiums from the Santa Fe 2026 South American Games were:

CW1x:

1. Pamela Noya – Peru
2. Fiorela Rodriguez – Paraguay
3. Ana Freire – Brazil

CM1x (results from time trial):

1. David Faria – Brazil
2. Alvaro Torres – Peru
3. Brahim Alvayay – Chile

CW2x (results from time trial):

1. Romina Cetraro, Zoe Acosta – Uruguay
2. Pamela Noya, Adriana Nunes – Peru
3. Fernanda Nunes, Ana Freire – Brazil

CM2x (results from time trial):

1. David Faria, Yan Costa – Brazil
2. Marcos Sarraute, Martin Zocalo – Uruguay
3. Brahim Alvayay, Rafael Aravena – Chile

CMix2x (results from time trial):

1. Kissya Cataldo, Vangelys Reinke – Brazil
2. Geronimo Hamann, Pamela Noya – Peru
3. Katia Baluzzo, Santiago Ferrer – Argentina