Brits miss-out on medals in Miami OCR

by RYA/Sail-world.com on 2 Feb 2008 Racing for the Paralympic classes drew to a close at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta on Friday without any Podium places for the Team GBR sailors. In the battle for Olympic places, Helena Lucas and Niki Birrell-Alexandra Rickham gained the advantage in the chase for British Paralympic selection in the 2.4mR and SKUD classes.

Lucas, who was competing with Megan Pascoe for the single British berth in the 2.4mR event, finished strongly, scoring 3, 3 in the final two races of the regatta for the single-handed Paralympic class.

Although her overall fourth place wasn’t enough to see her into the medals in this open fleet, comprising both able-bodied and disabled sailors, Southampton-based Lucas was the third placed sailor eligible to compete at the Paralympic Games, with Pascoe finishing in seventh and overall victory going to Damien Seguin of France.

In the two-person SKUD class, Skandia Team GBR’s Niki Birrell and Alexandra Rickham consolidated their position as the top British boat in the fleet, with results of 8,5 ensuring a fifth place finish in their very first regatta together in this new Paralympic class.

Allan Smith and Jackie Gay finished just behind, in sixth place on the overall leaderboard, while John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas couldn’t quite hold on to the third place they took into today in the three-person Sonar class and finished fourth overall.

RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park, observing the Miami event as part of the British selection trials for the Paralympic Games, commented: “It’s been an interesting few days watching our Paralympic hopefuls in action.

“It’s certainly been a tricky week for the sailors, and the RYA’s Paralympic selectors will now consider the outcomes of this regatta to determine what the next steps will be for all those concerned – whether that be to select, or to continue the trials process at future events.”

Final leading results

2.4mR (25 boats) -- 12 races
1. Damien Seguin (FRA), 4-2-1-3-1-3-[11]-4-4-4-7-2, 35
2. Stellan Berlin (SWE), 2-7-2-4-2-6-7-2-[18]-8-5-5, 50
3. Paul Tingley (CAN), 1-9-[26/OCS]-2-4-1-3-10-8-7-4-12, 61
GBR
4 Helena Lucas
7 Megan Pascoe

SKUD-18 (10 boats) -- 11 races
1. Nick Scandone/Maureen McKinnon-Tucker (Fountain Valley, Calif./Marblehead, Mass., USA), 1-1-1-1-1-2-3-1-2-1-[11/DNS], 14
2. Scott Whitman/Julia Dorsett (Brick, N.J./Boca Raton, Fla., USA), [5]-3-2-2-2-5-1-2-1-2-1, 21
3. John McRoberts/Stacie Louttit (CAN), 3-2-3-4-4-1-[6]-4-3-3-6, 33
GBR
5 Birrell, Niki/Rickham, Alexandra
6 Smith, Allan/Gay, Jackie
7 Figgures, Judi/Millward, Valerie

Sonar (11 boats) -- 10 races
1. Jens Kroker/Tobias Schuetz/Siegmund Mainka (GER), 1-3-2-2-1-2-2-1-[9]-5, 19
2. Bruno Jourden/Herve Larhant/Nicolas Vimont Vicary (FRA), 2-4-3-7-[12/DSQ]-1-6-5-4-1, 33
3. Paul McCarthy/Richard Whealey/Paul Ryan (IRL), 5-[9]-6-3-6-6-3-3-7-2, 41
GBR
4 Robertson, John/Thomas, Steve/Stodel, Hannah

Full results: http://www.rolexmiamiocr.org/results/index.htm