Australia's Peter Thompson jumps to sixth place at Paralympics

by IFDS/Sail-World on 20 Sep 2004 After four races, Australia's Peter Thompson has climbed from eighth to sixth place overall at the 2004 Paralympic Sailing Regatta.

On Day One, France's Damien Seguin scored two wins, but today was the turn of American Tom Brown.

Australia's entry, Peter Thompson, stayed well in contact with a fifth and a fourth, but it is clearly a tight competition where no mistakes can be afforded if he is to have any chance of medalling.

Even the clear Gold medallist from the Sydney 2000 Paralympics, Germany's Heiko Kroeger is finding the going tough - he is yet to win a race, currently third placed behind Brown and Seguin.

Thompson, a sailor of some note prior to his accident which rendered him a Paraplegic, needs to notch up a couple of wins to lift his score within reach of the top three.

Brown, the leader, is on eight points, with second and third close behind, whilst Thompson is 16 points behind the leader on 24. He will need to pull something out of the bag now, before the top four have an unassailable lead.

Racing continues on the Saronic Gulf tonight Sydney time.

Provisional Results after four races:

1 BROWN Thomas USA 4 2 1 1 - 8

2 SEGUIN Damien FRA 1 1 4 5 - 11

3 KROEGER Heiko GER 2 4 3 3 - 12

4 SCHMITTER Thierry NED 3 3 2 6 - 14

5 ERIKSTAD Bjornar NOR 7 6 9 2 - 24

6 THOMPSON Peter AUS 10 5 5 4 - 24

7 ANDERSEN Jens Als DEN 5 7 8 8 - 28

8 SMITH Allan GBR 9 10 7 7 - 33

9 MILLAR Bruce CAN 6 8 12 9 - 35

10 KALLIGERIS Stamatis GRE 11 9 6 13 - 39

11 QUERO Joaquin ESP 8 13 14 10 - 45

12 KARJALAINEN Antero FIN 13 11 10 11 - 45

13 OLMI Fabrizio ITA 12 12 11 12 - 47

14 SUTO Masakazu JPN 15 15 13 14 - 57

15 KINSELLA Feargal IRL 14 14 15 15 - 58

16 LIM Kok Liang SIN 16 16 16 16 - 64