News & Features | ISAF | World Sailing | Official Site : First Day Postponed Due to Storms

News

23 September 2002, 05:35 pm

First Day Postponed Due to Storms

IFDS Disabled World Sailing Championships and Paralympic Qualification

Medemblick

The IFDS World Championship were due to commence today, but had to be delayed due to storm force winds gusting up to 33 knots.

Racing was postponed until 3:00 this afternoon, but when the time approached, the wind had shown no signs of decreasing, so the race organisers made the wise decision to abandon racing for the day.

This 2002 IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championship fields the largest number of entries and countries seen to date at a Worlds, with 23 Sonar's entered and 41 2.4mR. The series consists of nine races for both of the classes, which concludes on Friday 27 September.

The event has even more importance for the competitors, as it is their first chance to qualify their nation for the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens. In total, the top seven nations in both of the classes will gain an entry for the 2004 Games.

The Worlds follows on from the Dutch Open which took place from 17-22 September and welcomed both Olympic and Paralympic classes, serving as a warm up event for the IFDS World Championship

Both the competitors and race committee will be hoping that the wind will calm down tomorrow and eagerly await the start of the world championships.

Sacha Oswald/ISAF News Editor

Isaf TV

The Men's 470 lead went to and fro all week but Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic (CRO) held their nerve to add a gold medal to their two silvers from the 2013-2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup series. Silver went to Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE) whilst Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (AUS) took bronze.

Female ISAF Rolex World Sailors of the Year Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL) won the Women's 470 Medal Race and with it gold as they made it three consecutive 200-point regatta wins in a row.
France's Camille Lecointre and Hélène Defrance had held the lead in the Women's 470 for the large part of the week but came undone on the final day as a sixth knocked them off gold medal position. They were made to settle for silver whilst bronze went to Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark (GBR).

Billy Besson and Marie Riou went into the Nacra 17 Medal Race with an unassailable 22 point lead and the gold medal sewn up. ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami gold medallists Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri (ITA) added a World Cup silver to their collection having finished in fifth. Bronze went to Darren Bundock and Nina Curtis (AUS).

Gold fleet racing got underway in six Olympic events at ISAF Sailing World Cup Mallorca. We caught up with three of the leaders and got race highlights from all of the day's proceedings. View results from Mallorca on the ISAF Sailing World Cup website here http://www.sailing.org/worldcup/results/index.php

The 2011 World Champion Giles Scott (GBR) made a successful come from behind victory on Saturday to take home the gold medal. Scott finished nine seconds behind Luke Lawrence (USA) for second place. Overnight leader Oliver Tweddell (AUS) slipped up with an eighth place finish Saturday after leading by nine points.