North America shines

The Paralympic Games have come to a close in Qingdao, with Canada and the USA having the best scores

The Paralympics have come to a close in Qingdao, China after an exciting final day. Unlike the Olympic Gamers competitors do not use the Medal Race format at the Paralympics so everyone was out on the water for the final racing.

There were no surprises in the Skud 18 fleet as Scandone and Tucker (USA) continued their impressive run of first and second positions, finally taking victory with one race to spare, a dream result in the newest Olympic class. Fitzgibbon and Cox (AUS) finished the event with a flourish of top three positions, leaving them with a Silver medal by the end of the week. Rounding out the medals in the Skud, was McRoberts and Louttit (CAN) who go home with a bronze. Perhaps rather fittingly local sailors, Jia and Yang (CHN) finished their championship as they had started it with a race win, leaving them just out of the medals in fourth.

Tingley (CAN) sailed an impressive final race in the 2.4mR class finishing the series with a victory, securing the gold medal. Other than a mid-series wobble of two ninths, Tingley never slipped out of the top five by far the most consistent performance in the class. Seguin (FRA) sailed a great final day with two fists and a second, handing him the Silver Medal. The battle for bronze was a tough one with Ruf (USA), just managing to squeeze ahead of Kroger (GER). Both competitors were tied on 28 points at the end of the week with Ruf winning on countback.

The tightest class of all on the final day was easily the three person Sonar fleet. Kroker, Prem and Mainka (GER) just managed to take the Gold Medal by just one point. Behind them it was a disaster for the French team of Jourdren, Larhant and Vimont Vicary who were leading the Germans and so in Gold Medal position halfway through the final race. However, major problems with their spinnaker forced them to retire, so handing Gold to the Germans. Harrison, Boaden and Martin (AUS) finished the final race in seventh position, leaving them on equal points with the French team but finished in bronze on countback. Impressively just three points separated the top five at the end of the 11 race series, a mark of just how tight this Paralympic class is.

Results, here .