by Delta Lloyd Regatta (as amended by IHCA)

The 2016 Para Sailing World Championships are heading for an exciting conclusion on Saturday with medals still up for grabs in all three classes.

The penultimate day of the 2016 Delta Lloyd Regatta and the 2016 Para Sailing World Championships in Medemblik brought the  best conditions of the week so far with an onshore onshore breeze building through the day to 12-16 knots by the end of racing. With sunny skies and great competition it was a near perfect day to be on the water. There was intense competition through all the fleets.

In the SKUD18 Monika Gibes/Piotr Cichocki (POL) have led from the day 1 and today dominated the fleet with two race wins to take a 12 point lead into the final day. Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch (AUS) and Alexandra Rickham/Nikki Birrell (GBR) traded second and third places to end the day on equal points. Another three boats are within striking range, so this fleet is also heading for an exciting finish.

Gibes said, “It was great on the water. We had small problem on the start because the waves were really high but we won two races so it’s a great day for us. The key to winning was good trim of the boat and our focus at every mark. At every mark we were very focused on thinking what to do, trying to remain in first place until the next mark.”

“Before the regatta we expected to be up the front. We know we are close to the best teams, but we didn’t expect to be leading for the whole regatta.”

Current results are available via this link.

The final day of racing for the SKUD18 fleet is expected to start from 1pm.