Sail-World.com : Editorial: Paralympics end in a thriller
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Editorial: Paralympics end in a thriller |
Welcome to Sail-World.Com's Olympic newsletter for the final day and medal presentations of the 2008 Paralympic Sailing Regatta.
Racing concluded in Qingdao on Saturday in a similar situation to the earlier Olympic regatta - the freshest breeze of the series at 10-12 kts and a direct onshore breeze.
The Gold medal in the Skud 18 class had already been won the previous day by Nick Scandone and Maureen Mckinnon-Tucker, and racing in this event was to determine the silver and bronze medalists.
In the 2.4mR class, Paul Tingley (CAN had really only to defend his five point margin through the final two races to win the Gold medal. Behind him, Damien Seguin (FRA) and John Ruf (USA) had their eyes on a medal, however two other competitors were also quite capable of staging an upset, in the moderate breeze.
 | The Gold medal winning German crew arfter the finish of a dramatic race 11 at the 2008 Paralympics - Qingdao - Sailing2008.com |
It was the three man Sonar keelboat which provided the most sensational racing of the day. The French crew were another with a moderately comfortable five point lead, and given their dominance of the regatta should have come away with the Gold medal, but a combination of good sailing by other crews and bad luck turned the tables on the French who could count themselves lucky to come away with the Silver medal.
This regatta was universally hailed as the most successful Paralympics to date.
Part of this can be attributed to the introduction of the new Skud 18 class from the board of Australian high performance designer, Julian Bethwaite. The big spinnakers offered huge billboard space for the national flags of the competitors - and recreating the spectacle that we witnessed in the Olympic regatta a couple of weeks earlier with the Tornado and 49er classes.
 | Siegmund Mainka (L), Jens Kroker and Robert Prem (R) of Germany celebrate winning the Paralympic gold medal in the Sonar
- 2008 Paralympics - Qingdao - Sailing2008.com |
Team organisation has now gone up several notches with full Olympic team style campaigns being run in the Paralympics. Interestingly this didn't always transfer to the medal count and the uber-organised British team who absolutely dominated the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics were absent from the podium at the Paralympics.
The camaraderie between the sailors and teams shines through in a regatta such as this. Although ignored by too many of the regular sailing media, there are some great stories to be told by many of the competitors of their trials and tribulations just to get to the event, probably none more so than Nick Scandone (USA) who had cheated the life expectancy of ALS sufferers, and won the Gold medal in the Skud 18 with two races to spare. Sadly it was probably the final sail of his life, however given what he has achieved to date, Scandone will hopefully surprise us all.
In this edition as well as reporting on the racing and results we have tried to convey through the images and stories just some of this background - it is a salutary reflection that these are just the tip of the iceberg of human triumph over extreme adversity in these Paralympics.
This will be the final edition of the Sail-World Paralympics newsletter. We will have one further Olympic newsletter which will have follow up interviews and reflections on the Olympics themselves, and be a 'where to from here' as the sailing world now looks to Weymouth in 2012.
Our thanks to those on the ground and water at Qingdao who have made these Paralympic newsletters possible, it has been a privilege to work with you..
Good Sailing!
Richard Gladwell
Sail-World Olympic Editor
nzeditor@sail-world.com
by .
2:18 AM Mon 15 Sep 2008 GMT
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