The stage set for some close final day races at Para Sailing Worlds

by RYA on 27 May 2016 The stage is set for some close final day races at the Para World Sailing Championships on Saturday (28 May), with British crews in the mix across the three classes.

Friday’s penultimate Championship day in Medemblik, the Netherlands, saw Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell bounce back from a tough third day in the SKUD fleet and will head into Saturday’s final two races facing a battle for silver, while John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas have the opportunity to defend their Sonar crown with two races to go.

They’re in overall second heading into the final day, while Helena Lucas is poised just outside of the 2.4mR podium spots in fourth.

In the two-person SKUD fleet, Niki Birrell was pleased that he and teammate Rickham could put in two solid scores on Friday after suffering two tough races and equipment damage on Thursday to dent their title hopes.

The Paralympic bronze medallists and five-time World Champions picked up a third and a second from their two races today to head into the final day in third place but tied on points with the second-placed Australian Paralympic champions Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch.

“[Today] was a lot better than yesterday – it couldn’t have really physically been much worse than yesterday for us!” Birrell laughed.

“It took a bit of character to bounce back but we managed to have two [races] inside the top three today. It’s not what me and Alex really want in life but for now it’s a lot better than yesterday.”

With the Polish duo Monika Gibes and Piotr Cichocki a sizable 12 points ahead in the standings and counting all scores inside the top three, Birrell knows it will be a tall order to rein them in.

“We’re pretty close with the Aussies for silver. We’ve not said congratulations to the Poles yet but they’ve got a pretty big lead so realistically they will be hard to catch unless they have a really bad time of it in the last two races.

“We’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

The Sonar trio of Robertson, Stodel and Thomas will head into the final day in second place, just four points behind the American crew Rick Doerr, Hugh Freund and Brad Kendall, who posted a race win and a second to the British team’s 2,7 to leapfrog them in the overall standings with two races to go.

“The boat was set up quite nice, we were going fast and had a decent start,” recalled Thomas of the first race. “Hannah did some good work on the shifts and we managed to pop out a second so we were pretty happy with that.

“The second race was pretty mental. We got caught coming off the line a little bit slow and got on the wrong side of a shift, but we fought back really hard, had some good boat speed and some good decisions by H to get us back in the game.

“The boat’s going quick and we were making some right decisions but were just a bit unlucky in that second race.”

“It’s all pretty close and it’ll just be normal fleet racing tomorrow and whoever can nail tomorrow will obviously come out with the World Championship,” Thomas continued.

“We need to be consistent and let everyone else do the worrying, as our coach keeps telling us. We’ll go out and enjoy it and enjoy the last day. For us it’s about looking towards Rio but also about finishing the World Championship off on a high in terms of processes and we’ll see where we end up.”

Elsewhere in the Sonar fleet, Craig Wood, Steve Palmer and Liam Cattermole are 13th heading into the final day, while Helena Lucas posted a tenth and a third in her 2.4mR fleet races today to see her in fourth place and in touch with the top three spots with two races to go.

“It was a bit tricky, especially in the first race, to understand what was going on. The forecast was that the wind was going to clock round to the left and when we started the first race it was quite far round to the right,” Lucas described.

“I was thinking it had got to come back left as that’s what we thought it should be doing. But it didn’t! So I was putting all my eggs in one basket and went up the left hand side. Basically there was more pressure on the right and the shift just never really came back.

“That was a pretty tough race and I was doing all I could just to catch up. Right at the end there was a group to be had down the run. It was really hard trying to get past people. The second race was a lot better and it went left – luckily I was left. I would have been really upset if I’d been on the right! It was a good race.”

Lucas is six points adrift from the medal spots heading in to the final day and although she’s not thinking about the scores, she knows the fleet is pretty close with plenty of opportunities for places changes remaining.

“Tomorrow I can’t focus on results or anything. I just need to get on that startline, get the best possible starts I can, get the boat set up as fast as I can. Hopefully I’ll get a handle of the tactics, nail a couple of shifts and happy days!

“The top three guys are sailing well, but they are making mistakes. Damien made a mistake today, and Heiko made a mistake earlier in the week, so it is a case of get your head down and do the best you possibly can and see what happens. That’s all you can do.”

2.4mR Open World Champion Megan Pascoe heads into the final day in seventh place, with fellow British Sailing Team members John Brooker, Carol Dugdale and Will Street in 13th, 14th and 18th places respectively.