France, Norway and Great Britain win IFDS Worlds

France’s 2.4mR sailor Seguin, Norway’s Sonar team Wang-Hanse/Solberg/Kristiansen and Great Britain’s SKUD team Rickham/Birrell have won the 2012 International Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) World Championships, with winds on Sunday between seven and ten knots for the final day of racing.

France’s Damien Seguin came first in the final race of the 2.4mR course to win the competition overall. Thierry Schmitter of the Netherlands came second overall, after crossing the line of the final race in ninth place, and Canada’s Paul Tingley came third overall, after finishing in seventh on Sunday.

The Sonar racecourse saw first place overall Aleksander Wang-Hanse, Marie Solberg Per Eugen Kristiansen team of Norway finish Sunday’s race in sixth position. The French team of Bruno Jourdren, Eric Flageul / Nicolas Vimont-Vicary , second place overall, crossed the line in fourth place and the third overall British team of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel / Steve Thomas came in tenth, which was tossed out.

The first three boats to cross the finish line in the final Sonar race were from the lower ranks. USA’s Rick Doerr, Brad Kendell / Hugh Freund, ninth overall, came in first. The German team of Jens Kroker, Robert Prem / Mainka Siegmund, tenth overall, placed a second and Australia’s Colin Harrison, Jonathan Harris / Stephen Churm, fourth overall, followed in third place.

On the SKUD course Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell of Great Britain, first overall, placed fourth. The Americans, Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou, in second place overall, were first to cross the finish line. The Australian team of Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch, ranked third overall, came second on Sunday.

Depending on the outcome of results at Miami’s OCR from 22-28 January 2012, several of this week’s winners will be headed to the Paralympic Games in England in July. The qualifying countries in the different boats are:

2.4mR : Australia, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Spain, Puerto Rico and U.S.A.

SKUD 18: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Spain, France, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and USA.

Sonar: Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, USA. and Brazil.