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Australia and Great Britain rule sailing waters
On the first day of sailing action at Weymouth, the Australians and British both got off to quick starts. 01 Sep 2012
The Great Britain SKUD team takes to the waters at the 2012 Sail for Gold Regatta.
Great Britain’s Helena Lucas finished second in the first 2.4mR class race and then won the next to lead the series after the opening day.
Australia and Great Britain embarked on their expected battle for medals at the front of the two-person SKUD18 fleet on the first day of sailing at the 11-race London 2012 Paralympic regatta on Saturday (1 September).
Early disappointment hit leading one-person 2mR French Paralympic sailor Damien Seguin when he was disqualified with maximum points in his second race of the day and in the three-man Sonar class Germany blocked Australia's hopes of a clean sweep of the day's races.
Great Britain’s Helena Lucas finished second in the first 2.4mR class race and then won the next to lead the series after the opening day.
She might have had much to fear in future from Seguin, who led the first race from start to finish, dominating the fleet soon after it started to lead around the first mark and finishing fourth in the second race. But officials disqualified him after the second race and penalised him 17 points after an official protest by Canada’s Paul Tingley over an incident on the start line.
The disqualification dropped Seguin from second overall to ninth.
Lucas improved on her second-place finish in the first race behind Seguin by winning the second race by inches, just darting ahead of three pursuing boats sailed by Thierry Schmitter of the Netherlands, Heiko Kroger of Germany and Seguin.
After her first day's two races, Lucas has a four-point lead over Schmitter in second and Kroger in third, with Tingley, the Beijing gold-medal winner, in seventh place.
After a first day of racing in 13-knot westerly winds Australians Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl and British event favourites Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell tied on points at the top of the standings.
The expected fight between the Australian and Great Britain crews emerged right from the start when Australia grabbed an early advantage off the start to lead the British crew round the first mark.
In the three-person keelboat sonar event, Colin Harriosn, Jonathan Harris and Stephen Churm of Australia sailed to the top of the fleet.