Two Rio bronze medals for Britain’s Paralympic sailors
H elena Lucas took 2.4mR one-person keelboat bronze at the Rio 2016 Paralympic sailing regatta after a tense race that saw her gold medal hopes hampered by a plastic bag.
Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell were ‘elated’ to match their London 2012 feat by taking Skud-18 bronze on the final day of racing. Meanwhile, the British Sonar team, who were out of medal contention going into the final race, ended their regatta on a high with a third place to finish ninth overall. Lucas went into the final race on 17 September leading by a point over France’s Damien Seguin, with Matt Bugg (AUS) in third – 10 points behind the Brit. However, Lucas finished 15th to take bronze, while Seguin’s fourth place finish was enough to claim victory. Bugg’s final race win meant he leapfrogged Lucas to take silver.
With London 2012 gold and Rio 2016 bronze medals, Lucas, 41, is Britain’s most successful Paralympic sailor ever, but her achievements were tinged with disappointment after she found her racing had been hindered by a plastic bag on her rudder. She said: ‘I didn’t have the speed I’ve had all week because I was towing a bag.’ In a ding-dong battle around the racetrack, Rickham and Birrell finished just four seconds behind silver medallists John McRoberts and Jackie Gay (CAN). Australia’s Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch had wrapped up gold with two races to spare. Britain’s Sonar trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas experienced a rollercoaster of a regatta with a hat-trick of wins midweek. They were disappointed not to reach the podium. British Sailing Team manager Stephen Park said: ‘This is the end of an era for British Paralympic sailing and possibly for Paralympic sailing as a whole. World Sailing is working very hard to ensure sailing is back in play for 2024.’