The final day of the IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championships (Friday 8 July) saw more medal success for Britain’s sailors, with the Sonar trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas claiming silver, and Helena Lucas taking bronze in the 2.4mR event to add to the gold already secured by SKUD duo Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell a day earlier.


Strong winds with gusts in excess of 25 knots at the 2012 sailing venue of Weymouth and Portland meant that Friday’s final race in each of the three Paralympic classes was unable to get underway, with the medals in the 2.4mR and SKUD events decided on the standings at the end of Thursday’s racing.  

Rickham and Birrell couldn’t lose the Championship title heading into the final day, regardless of whether they raced, whereas Skandia Team GBR’s Helena Lucas must have secretly breathed a sigh of relief when the abandonment flags were raised. 

With the Dutch duo of Thierry Schmitter and Andre Rademaker fighting it out for gold and silver, Lucas was poised tentatively in the bronze medal position heading into the final day, with the points margins so close that five other boats – including Megan Pascoe – had the chance to snatch bronze at the final opportunity on Friday.

But with that opportunity denied due to the windy conditions, a relieved Lucas took World Championship bronze to add to her Disabled Worlds medals from 2006 and 2009.  

“I knew what the forecast was yesterday and I knew it was key to try and make sure that I finished yesterday in the medal places just in case we didn’t race today,” the Southampton-based sailor explained. 

“My coach was great – he said ‘right, we’re going down to the dock and put the sails on’ just to make sure I was in the right frame of mind to be going racing and be prepared to race rather than hoping that we didn’t race and sitting on the dock praying that the wind would keep up.”

“It’s brilliant to medal in the venue – it gives you so much confidence,” continued the 36-year-old, who hoped that a podium finish in the Paralympic venue would boost her prospects of selection for the Games team in 2012.

“There’s loads of stuff that I can improve on – there’s loads of mistakes that were made and things like that, so it’s kind of a good thing that I know that I can go away and there’s lots of things to work on and get better.  It’s really encouraging for the future.”

There was a delay of almost two-and-half hours before Athens 2004 Paralympic champions Dror Cohen, Benni Vexler and Arnon Efrati (ISR) were confirmed as Sonar champions.

Following the decision to reinstate the Israeli team after an initial race 10 OCS last night, a decision which put them at the top of the leaderboard four points clear of Britain’s John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas, the British crew protested their Israeli rivals today for having film equipment on their boat, an alleged infringement of the class rules.

The protest was upheld by the jury, who found that the presence of the video camera did breach the class rule, but imposed zero penalty and recommended that for future events, the class rules should be reviewed. The British boat’s subsequent request for redress against the race 10 OCS decision was also dismissed, meaning the Israeli crew were crowned Sonar World champions for the first time.

Cohen said: “It’s great, after so many years! We have been twice second, we won the gold medal in the Paralympics but to win the World Championship is something very special especially as there is so many good sailors around, the 10 top boats could easily get the medals, it was a tough, tough competition and it feels good to win when it’s like that. Protests are part of sailing but we always prefer to finish things on the water; competitively find the spirit of sport, sportsmanship and friendship. Of course there’s tackles but that’s part of sailing. Now we’ve got our new boat fine tuned and I think we’ll be a strong competitor for the Paralympics.”


At the 2010 World Championships, the British Sonar team also missed out on gold through a last-minute protest involving two other boats which impacted on their score.But in spite of their disappointment, the 25-year-old Stodel is adamant that their time at the top of the podium will come again.

“It’s not ideal, but a medal’s a medal – we’re still going in the right direction.  Morally, we know we were right so we’ve got everything to play for.  We played the game fairly.

“Surely if we get all the bad luck out of the way now then next year will be easy-peasy.  We must be due some good luck, surely?!   “I think people are scared of us again, which we really love,” she continued. 

“We sailed consistently and we’re going to be the team to have a look at next year, because this is really going to wind us up no end. 

“This winter we’re going to be hammer down, and putting the hours in.  They’d better watch out!”

“The outcome of the Sonar event was a bit disappointing really.  I suppose really just disappointing that the final day of the event has ended up in the protest room rather than on the water, and a little bit of controversy there,” said RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park. 

“However, at the end of the day, we have come away with three medals – one of each colour – and we are the only nation that has managed to win a medal in each event.  We’ve had a number of sailors through the course of the week who’ve been performing very well and have been fighting it out for the medals at the front of the fleets.”

Park continued: “It’s been a very tough competitive event – certainly the toughest IFDS Worlds in terms of competition that I can remember and racing-wise on the water it’s been a pretty good, so it’s been particularly great for all of our Skandia Team GBR sailors to have been at the front of the fleet, fighting it out for medal positions from day one right the way through until the end of the regatta.  They should be proud of their achievements and take that forward into next year.  

“Certainly if we could deliver these results in 2012 with one medal in event we’ll be very happy indeed.”

IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championships 2011, Weymouth & Portland:
Final standings:
Sonar (three-person keelboat)
1. Dror Cohen-Benni Vexler-Arnon Efrati (AUT), 34 pts
2. John Robertson-Hannah-Stodel-Steve Thomas (GBR), 38 pts
3. Alexander Wang Hansen-Per Eugen Kristiansen-Marie Solberg (NOR) 45 pts

SKUD (two-person keelboat)
1. Alexandra Rickham-Niki Birrell (GBR), 19 pts
2. Jennifer French-Jean Paul Criegnou (USA), 26 pts
3. Daniel Fitzgibbon-Liesl Tesch (AUS), 30 pts

2.4mR (one-person keelboat)
1. Thierry Schmitter (NED), 27 pts
2. Andre Rademaker (NED), 39 pts
3. Helena Lucas (GBR), 52 pts
6. Megan Pascoe (GBR), 56 pts

Event director, the RYA’s Tim Hall said: “We’ve had a great week and it’s been fantastic to get 10 races in and it would have been so good to finish with the final 11th race for all the classes today. We didn’t take the decision to abandon racing lightly, we really waited and tried our best to get a race in there but just too much wind made it unsafe for the sailors.”