|
St. Thomas, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS - JULY
17, 1998 - Virgin Islands Game Fishing Club president Lori Bailey today
announced a correction to the Top Angler awards in the Offshore Division
of the 35th annual July Open Tournament that concluded July 5 in St.
Thomas.
With a tournament total of four blue marlin releases, Sea
Dream owner-angler, Juan Donastevez, Jr. of Puerto Rico remains the
Top Angler, Best Visiting Angler, and Give'm Line Trophy winner.
When factored into his tournament catch total, however --
which already included two blue marlin releases -- Jose J. Ramon's 28-pound
Day One Wahoo catch aboard Sarita boosted the Puerto Rico angler into
the Second Place Angler slot. That decision forced a two marlin
apiece tiebreaker (based on time-of-catch) between Adrian Stella (Magic
Touch) and Angell Rivera (Sea Dream) that saw owner-angler Stella emerge
as Third Place Angler.
"We apologize for the error and will get proper trophies
to the anglers affected," says Bailey, who explains that JOT tournament
scoring is typically driven by blue marlin catch totals. "As soon
as the awards committee realized that Wahoo were included among the
"Big Five" fish species Offshore anglers score points for,
we knew there had been a mistake."
Though bumped from the top-three angler
standings, Rivera remains victorious as part of the Puerto Rico-based
Sea Dream "Dream Team" that captured the Best Visiting Boat,
Best Crew, and Last Fish titles with a three-day, ten-marlin boat total
that included catch contributions from all four registered anglers:
Juan Donastevez, Jr. (4); Angell Rivera (2); Umberto Martinez (2); and
Jose Lanpreabe (2). Sea Dream was captained by Ray Fernandez.
Eighteen boats and 59 anglers from the U.S. and British
Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico participated in the three-day competition
that saw a total of 32 blue marlin releases in the waters off
the British Virgin Island's North Drop. The Virgin Islands' longest-running
sports fishing tournament was sponsored this year by Chivas Regal, with
Miller Lite Beer and Cruzan Rum, distributed by Premier Wines &
Spirits, Ltd. of St. Thomas.
|
||
