Although there is no double points "medal race" format for the Paralympic sailing, the series comes to an end this Thursday with one single race. Two golds are decided, the Dutch having wrapped up Sonar gold and the Australians the Skud 18 gold.The 2.4mR is for Britain's Helene Lucas to loose. Lucas is in gold position with a nine point lead but it is possible for Heiko Kroeger of Germany to take the gold if Lucas were to finish last or get disqualified in the final race. But Kroeger may have to look to protecting the silver position from Thierry Schmitter of the Netherlands who is just two points behind him.
In the Skud Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch of Australia have the gold and Britain's Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell are guaranteed bronze with a chance of silver if they can beat the American pair, Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou. The scoring is tight but third or better with a boat between them would give Rickham and Birrell the silver.
In the Sonar, Udo Hessels, Marcel Van de Veen and Mischa Rossen of the Netherlands have the gold with a 20 point margin. The silver and bronze are up for grabs by the German, Norwegian, French and British crews.
Whereas yesterday the breeze in Portland Harbour was a stable 12-15 knots, lighter SE winds up to 6-12 knots are expected today. An early postponement flag is up but the sea breeze is expected to kick in about 1pm. No races will start after 13:50 and with racing looking unlikely at the moment it will mean the leader board in the three events will remain the same.
2.4mR - Leading positions after 10 of 11 races
1st Helena Lucas GBR 26 pts
2nd Heiko Kroeger GER 35 pts
3rd Thierry Schmitter NED 37 pts
SKUD18 - Leading positions after 10 of 11 races
1st Dan Fitzgibbon / Liesl Tesch AUS 14 pts
2nd Jennifer French / Jean-Paul Creignou USA 20 pts
3rd Alexandra Rickham / Niki Birrell GBR 22 pts
Sonar - Leading positions after 10 of 11 races
1st Udo Hessels, Marcel Van de Veen, Mischa Rossen NED 20 pts
2nd Jens Kroker, Robert Prem, Siegmund Mainka GER 40 pts
3rd Aleksander Wang-Hansen, Marie Solberg, Per Eugen Kristiansen NOR 42 pts
4th Bruno Jourdren, Eric Flageul, Nicolas Vimont Vicary FRA 42 pts
5th John Robertson, Hannah Stodel, Stephen Thomas GBR 45 pts
6th Colin Harrison, Jonathan Harris, Stephen Churm AUS 47 pts
G New
6 September 2012 7:32