WAIS Athlete Qualifies Aussie Boat for Paralympics in 2012
The Australian Sailing Team’s Skud 18 crew of Daniel Fitzgibbon and WAIS IASP athlete Rachel Cox has won the Bronze medal at the 2010 IFDS World Championship in The Netherlands qualifying Australia for the 2012 London Paralympic Games in the process.
Fitzgibbon and Cox were the star performers on the final day of the regatta winning both Skud 18 races to consolidate their third position and put plenty of pressure on the two crews ahead of them with Great Britain winning Gold and America Silver.
“Rachel and I had a really good day overall with two race wins and good breeze, we’re very happy with how we went today,” said Fitzgibbon. “Both races were in pressure around the 20 knot range, we had good speed, good starts and sailed really well to win both races.”
“We were a bit disappointed with how we started the regatta but to finish the way we did means that what we are working on is going well for us,” he said. “The best thing about today is that we qualified Australia for the 2012 London Paralympic Games in the two person keel boat class so it looks like Australia is going to London!”
Fellow Australians Ame Barnbrook and Lindsay Mason also had a great final day finishing with a third and a fifth to move into fourth overall, a great result in their first major international regatta together for two years.
“Today was windy but a lot of fun,” said Barnbrook. “In race one we were in third the whole way around the course so it was good clean sailing once again. Then the second race was full of surprises, we actually lost our rudder which made it slightly more difficult to complete the race.”
“Overall Lindsay and I are feeling really good, we finished fourth which is fantastic,” she said. “It was very choppy and windy today which made for different sailing to last week but overall it’s been a great regatta.”
Matthew Bugg finished 16th in his first 2.4mR World Championship with a 20th and a 15th on the final day of racing in Medemblik.
“It was quite windy today up to around 20 knots,” said Bugg. “I had to do two penalty turns in the first race which put me back to 43rd around the top mark but after that I managed to sail well and get back to 20th by the finish.”
“I’m a little unhappy that it’s all over now because I have really enjoyed this regatta and wish it could have gone on for longer,” he said.
The Australian Sailing Team’s Sonar crew of Colin Harrison (WAIS), Russell Boaden (WAIS) and Rod Angwin has finished the regatta in 14th overall, posting an 11th and a 15th in the final two races.
“Today was devastatingly disappointing,” said Harrison. “We failed to achieve our goal for this event which was to qualify the country for the 2012 London Paralympic Games.”
“Both races were a really hard slog,” he said.”The wind was up, short and choppy on the water which was throwing the boat around which made it tough going.”
The crew had a tough week but there were some good signs for the future with a number of top 10 finishes throughout the regatta.
The majority of the Australian’s now head to Verase, in Italy, for recovery at the Australian Institute of Sport facility before the final round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Weymouth, England, at the beginning of August.
– Yachting Australia