Gold and silver for Skandia Team GBR's Sonar and SKUD Teams

Friday 10 June 2011 saw the conclusion of racing for the Paralympic classes at Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, the sixth leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup series.

In spite of posting their worst days’ results with 6,7 from their final day, John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas had done enough earlier in the week to secure a hard-fought gold in the three-person Sonar class and beat the reigning World Champions from the Netherlands into overall second.

“It’s been a tough week – a very tough day actually but we hung in there and came away with a gold,” said a relieved Stodel, who explained that victory on the 2012 Paralympic waters has put them in a confident mood ahead of the World Championships which will also be held in Weymouth and Portland next month.

“To do well here puts us on a good footing for the Worlds, and it’s proved that all that training beforehand has really, really paid off and we’ll be looking forward to the Worlds now.

“We’ve definitely got some stuff still to work on – we’ve got a new boat coming and a few things hidden still to crack out before the Worlds so keep watching this space but we’ll definitely be firing for the Worlds.”

The chasing Dutch closed the gap from four to three points, but the reigning World Champions Udo Hessels, Marcel van Veen and Mischa Rossen couldn’t quite do enough on the final day to go past the Brits. They only just fended off the French charge of Bruno Jourdren, Eric Flageul and Nicolas Vimont Vicary, who tied the Dutch on points at the end of the regatta, but lost silver on countback. The reigning Olympic champions, Jens Kroker, Robert Prem and Siegmund Mainka could only manage a seventh.

Skandia Team GBR’s Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell secured silver in the two-person Paralympic SKUD class, behind Australia’s Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch, ending their regatta on a high with a second race victory of the series.

“We’ve had a consistent week. In all the wind strengths we managed to get top three results in so it’s good that we’ve got good boat speed across the range of conditions and we’re doing well compared to the rest of the world,” Birrell explained.

“Our training has worked reasonably well, our aim was to get a medal – we always hope it’s gold but a silver’s not the end of the world.” The duo are looking for a third straight World Championship title on home waters next month, and Rickham is determined that they’ll put up an even tougher battle at the IFDS Worlds.

“We’re looking forward to the Worlds and hopefully we’ll be able to come back at the Australians a little bit harder and maybe change the silver to gold,” she added.

The bronze medal was taken by Fitzgibbon and Tesch’s team-mates, Dunross and Cox – a good day for Australia’s SKUD teams.

It was the 2.4mR class that took a battering in the afternoon, but not much has put Damien Seguin (FRA) off his stride this week, and a bit of proper British weather on the final day certainly couldn’t rob him of the gold medal. It was a close run thing though, as Dutchman Andre Rademaker went on a charge with a first and a second, and closed the gap to a single point to take silver. In doing so, he pushed the overnight silver medallist and his countryman, Thierry Schmitter into bronze.

To view the full set of results from the Paralympic classes from Skandia Sail for Gold please visit www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk

Article Author Matt Carter 10/6/2011 23:38