IFDS Worlds 2011 day 2 - Sonar and SKUD teams pursue the pole

by Lindsey Bell on 5 Jul 2011 IFDS Worlds 2011 are currently underway in Weymouth with day two of racing proving to be a difficult test for some.

Britain’s Paralympic hopefuls remain firmly in the hunt on their home waters with defending SKUD champions Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell, and the Sonar trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas in pole position after July 4th's racing.
 
Megan Pascoe and Helena Lucas are also in touch of the podium spots, in third and fourth respectively in the one-person 2.4mR event.

Rickham and Birrell – in pursuit of their third straight world title this week on the 2012 waters of Portland Harbour – remain on top of the leaderboard in the two-person SKUD event, but couldn’t emulate their perfect opening day scoreline.
 
A trapped spinnaker sheet in the first race of the day left them unable to hoist their spinnaker on the downwind legs of the race, and saw them finish in an uncharacteristic eighth place.
 
'It wasn’t ideal by any stretch,' admitted Rickham.  'We were looking for top threes this week – that was kind of how we figured we’d keep things easy, and quite obviously we went and threw a spanner in the works! 
 
'We came away with an eighth from the race though which was better than a 22nd and is what we would have had if we’d retired.'

'Race two was a little bit better,' the 29-year-old continued.  'Unfortunately we let the Aussies get away from us a little bit on the startline and it just progressed from there. They did a bit of what we did to them yesterday to us today in that second race. That was unfortunate, but were happy with that second race – it was a two, which is a top three in line with what our are, so we’re on track and leading the pack and that’s the main thing.'

The Skandia Team GBR duo are two points ahead of Australians Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch, who got the better of them to win gold at the Skandia Sail for Gold World Cup regatta on the same Dorset waters last month.

Rickham rates the Australian Paralympic silver medallist Fitzgibbon and his crew Tesch – a Paralympic basketball medallist – as their chief rivals in the world title race, but is sure it will be a close battle for gold.
 
'The Americans and Canadians are pushing hard and have been coming back at us a lot today. It’s kind of anybody’s on paper but I think Dan Fitzgibbon is still the one to beat, and the other two Aussie boats are pretty rapid and solid as well.
 
'It’s going to be quite a scrap up there in the top five as it stands at the moment!'
 
In the three-person Sonar event, John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas advanced from their overnight position of third, with 5,1 from their two races today.

The trio, also gunning for a third world title to add to their 2005 and 2006 victories, lead the second-placed Israeli crew of Dror Cohen, Benni Vexler and Arnon Efrati by four points, with the French team helmed by Bruno Jourdren and at one time tied on points with the British team, suffering a disqualification due to a pre-start infringement in the second race of the day.

Stodel was content with their performance today, but isn’t getting carried away with thoughts of a podium spot just yet.
 
'It wasn’t a bad day – we have to remember we’ve still got seven races left. We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s nice to have had a good day and we’re pretty happy.'

The 25-year-old from Colchester, who’s aiming for her third Paralympic Games, is looking forward to the prospect of increasing breeze in the coming days, and feels it’s a condition which may favour them over some of their rivals.
 
'We love a bit of breeze!' Stodel explained.  'Certainly in our fleet the fitness counts and I think all the work we’ve done over the winter will really start to show by the end of the week.'
 
The one-person 2.4mR class saw Dutch double World Champion Thierry Schmitter come into form today, picking up two race wins to top the leaderboard, but Skandia Team GBR’s Megan Pascoe and Helena Lucas remain in the running.  Pascoe picked up a consistent 5,3 from her two races to move her into third overall on 18 points, while Lucas is just one point behind.
 
'It was very consistent [today], so I’m very happy with it – it’s slowly going in the right direction,' explained the 24-year-old Pascoe.
 
'I’m not putting any amazing performances down, but I’m getting there and it’s a good start to the week.  It’s always easier to build on a good start than trying to come back from a bad one!' Lucas’s day was less consistent, with 2,10 on the scoreboard for her two races.
 
'It’s always hard,' she explained.  'You have a good first race and then the second one’s not so good so I felt a little bit disappointed coming back in, but I’ll go away, sit down with my coach. I know exactly what went wrong so we’ll talk through it and I’m sure we’ll put it all in perspective so it wasn’t too bad a day on the water really.'
 
Racing at the IFDS Disabled Sailing Combined World Championships continues until Friday 8 July.  There are 11 races in total scheduled for each class (two races per day Sunday-Thursday and one race on Friday 8 July).

Skandia Team GBR squad for the IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championships:

Name                          Born                           Place of Birth                        Lives  

SKUD18 (two-person keelboat)

Niki Birrell                    16/08/1986                  Manchester                         Knutsford
Alexandra Rickham    11/09/1981                  Kingston, Jamaica                  Epsom, Surrey

2.4mR (one-person keelboat)

Megan Pascoe            29/11/1986                  Shoreham-by-Sea                  Portland    
Helena Lucas              29/04/1975                  Redhill, Surrey                      Southampton

Sonar (three-person keelboat)

John Robertson          11/02/1972                  North Haven, Sunderland       Portland  
Hannah Stodel            27/08/1985                  Colchester                           West Mersea
Stephen Thomas        05/01/1977                  Bridgend                               Cardiff

IFDS Worlds website