January 25, 2006
3 minutes reading time
Britain And Germany Share The Honours
Britain's John ROBERTSON, Hannah STODEL and Stephen THOMAS have defended their crown in the Sonar, whilst Germany's Heiko KRÃ?GER scored victory in the 2.4 Metre at the 2006 Alcoa IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championships, hosted by the Royal Perth Yacht Club in Australia.
Britain’s John ROBERTSON, Hannah STODEL and Stephen THOMAS have defended their crown in the Sonar, whilst Germany’s Heiko KRÖGER scored victory in the 2.4 Metre at the 2006 Alcoa IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championships, hosted by the Royal Perth Yacht Club in Australia.
The two nations also took second places, with Jens KROKER, Holger SCHOENBERG and Tobias SCHUELTZ second in the three-person keelboat Sonars, while British skipper Helena LUCAS finished runner up in the single-person keelboat 2.4 Metre.
Norway was third in both events, with Bjornar ERIKSTAD slipping from first place overnight in the 2.4 Metres, while Jostein STORDAHL, Aleksander WANG-HANSEN and Per EUGEN KRISTIANSEN overtook the Australian Sonar crew on the last day.
ROBERTSON Makes History
ROBERTSON becomes the first skipper in the history of disabled sailing in the Sonar to defend the World Championship, putting in a very steady performance on the final day, with two bullets and a second place.
The British skipper said his coach had told him in the morning, ‘Just relax and enjoy it, and we did.’
Elaborating on his success on the final day he said, ‘The others made it very difficult for themselves, the Germans nailed themselves to the pin on the starting line twice.’
For Heiko KRÖGER, this was a return to the top spot, having won the Championship six times before, but only finishing second last year, ‘So it’s nice to be the Champion again,’ he commented.
Conditions Make For Challenging Championship
Talking about the sailing on the Swan River he said, ‘These conditions were very, very tricky, this is one of the most challenging places I’ve sailed, it was hard to get a pattern with the shifts, also the competition in the best we’ve ever had.’
While ROBERTSON and his crew made it look easy on the Sonar course today, in the 2.4 Metres it went down to the wire, with LUCAS just one point behind KRÖGER going into the last race of the day.
For LUCAS to win, she had to finish in the top five, and be ahead of KRÖGER, but the German made a great start, and sailed a steady race to take the gun, and the series in fitting style.
This Championship, being hosted by the Royal Perth Yacht Club on the Swan River, is the first qualifying event for the 2008 Paralympic Sailing Competition, with the top seven nations qualifying, subject to IFDS and IPC approval. This means in the 2.4 Metre, Germany, Great Britain, Norway, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand have secured spots for the Beijing 2008, whilst in the Sonar the qualifying nations are Great Britain, Germany, Norway, Australia, Israel, Ireland and Canada.
Top Ten Results
2.4 Metre
| Pos | Nation | Skipper | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | Pts |
| 1 | GER | Heiko KRÖGER | 4 | 2 | 1 | (7) | 5 | (6) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 17 |
| 2 | GBR | Helena LUCAS | 1 | 1 | 2 | (11) | 1 | (20) DSQ | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3.5 | 20.5 |
| 3 | NOR | Bjornar ERIKSTAD | 2 | 3 | (19) DNF | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 7 | (11) | 30 |
| 4 | CAN | Bruce MILLAR | 6 | (17) DNF | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | (13) | 7 | 8 | 5 | 42 |
| 5 | USA | Nick SCANDONE | 9 | 9 | 8 | (18) DNF | 6 | 1 | (15) | 1 | 10 | 2 | 46 |
| 6 | GBR | Megan PASCOE | (13) | 8 | 4 | 1 | (10] | 8 | 9 | 3 | 9 | 6 | 48 |
| 7 | CAN | Paul TINGLEY | 3 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 5 | (11) | 3 | (10) | 50 |
| 8 | USA | Roger CLEWORTH | 5 | 7 | 3 | 8 | (13) | 12 | (14) | 5 | 4 | 7 | 51 |
| 9 | CAN | Danny MCCOY | 8 | (14) | 10 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 5 | (15) | 54 |
| 10 | AUS | Aaron HILL | 10 | 4 | 7 | (18) DSQ | 11 | (14) | 12 | 4 | 6 | 3.5 | 57.5 |
Sonar
| Pos | Nation | Skipper | Crew | Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | Pts |
| 1 | GBR | John ROBERTSON | Hannah STODEL | Stephen THOMAS | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | (9) | (6) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 15 |
| 2 | GER | Jens KROKER | Holger SCHOENBERG | Tobias SCHUETZ | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | (9) | 7 | (9) | 3 | 27 |
| 3 | NOR | Jostein STORDAHL | Aleksander WANG-HANSEN | Per EUGEN KRISTIANSEN | 5 | 4 | (9) | 3 | (8) | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 28 |
| 4 | AUS | Jamie DUNROSS | Colin HARRISON | Graeme MARTIN | 3 | 5 | 1 | (9) | 7 | 3 | 2 | 3 | (11) | 7 | 31 |
| 5 | ISR | Dror COHEN | Arnon EFRATI | Beni Vexler | 8 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | (8) | (17) OCS | 4 | 2 | 36 |
| 6 | ISR | Shimon BEN YAKOV | Moshe ZEHAVI | Yossi BARDA | 10 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 2 | (10) | (17) DSQ | 2 | 1 | 4 | 37 |
| 7 | IRL | Paul MCCARTHY | Paul RYAN | Chris THOMAS | 4 | (9) | 8 | (10) | 4 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 43 |
| 8 | AUS | Peter THOMSON | Keith CONDER | Barry Astwood | 2 | (12) | 10 | 7 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | (11) | 60 |
| 9 | CAN | Ken KELLY | Brian MACKIE | Don TERLSON | 7 | 11 | (14) | 8 | 6 | (17) DSQ | 5 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 62 |
| 10 | ISR | Avi TZUR | Baruch PERETZMAN | Shlomo DAHAN | 9 | 10 | 12 | 12 | (13) | 2 | 4 | (17) OCS | 6 | 8 | 63 |
For all the news from the Alcoa IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championships CLICK HERE.