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USA Captures Two Gold, Two Silver at IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championship
Top Finishes Qualify U.S. for Sonar, SKUD-18 Events at 2008 Paralympic Games
By Cynthia Goss
// US SAILING
// September 15, 2007
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Karen Mitchell and J.P. Creignou never finished outside the top-10 in an individual race on their way to becoming world champions in the SKUD-18 class.
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PORTSMOUTH, R.I. - U.S. sailors made a strong showing at the 2007 IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championship, capturing two gold medals and two silver medals at this world championship that concluded Friday, Sept. 14 on Lake Ontario. By winning four of a possible nine medals, the U.S. topped the national medal count at this week-long event hosted by the Rochester Yacht Club (Rochester, N.Y.).
The performance of U.S. sailors at this world championship in the SKUD-18 class—a new Paralympic class making its debut at the 2008 Paralympic Games—have proved that the U.S. is a nation to watch in this doublehanded fleet. The U.S. had four boats in the top 10, capturing first, second, fourth, and seventh places in the 18-boat class.
Gold medalists Karen Mitchell (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) and J.P. Creignou (St. Petersburg, Fla.) sailed consistently at the leading edge of the fleet, never finishing below top 10 in an individual race despite varied wind conditions that ranged from light air, to a day with intermittent squalls, to teen-strength breezes that gusted into the low-20-knot range. Nick Scandone (Fountain Valley, Calif.) and Maureen McKinnon-Tucker (Marblehead, Mass.) captured the silver medal.
According to Betsy Alison (Newport, R.I.), the head coach of the U.S. Disabled Sailing Team, the United States' strong showing in the SKUD class stems from a decision U.S. SKUD sailors made when this boat appeared on the scene.
"We trained as a group and held several training camps," said Alison. "As one boat made a new step up in performance, we all learned: we discussed rig tension and gybing angles, and the sailors learned from each others' successes … These SKUD sailors have worked hard, and this regatta just shows what you can achieve when you work together."
SKUD sailors Scott Whitman (Brick, N.J.) and Julia Dorsett (Boca Raton, Fla.) finished fourth, and Sarah Everhart-Skeels (Tiverton, R.I.) and Bob Jones (Issaquah, Wash.) finished seventh.
Sonar skipper Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Bill Donohue (Brick, N.J.) and Tim Angle (Marblehead, Mass.) captured gold in a 27-boat Sonar class that was deep with world-class talent. According to Alison, a mid-fleet position on the Sonar race course at this event could put a skipper in a neighborhood with past Paralympic medalists, past world champions. Only three points separated the top three boats in the final standings, and the U.S. team of Paul Callahan (Cape Coral, Fla.), Tom Brown (Northeast Harbor, Maine) and Roger Cleworth (Lithia, Fla) captured the silver medal.
John Ruf (Pewaukee, Wisc.), who finished 10th in the 2.4mR class, was the top-scoring U.S. sailor in that 45-boat fleet.
Alison's kudos for the U.S. sailors who competed at this regatta extends well beyond medal counts. "I am personally so proud of all the sailors. They support each other; when one wins, the others are happy for their success. They all represented the U.S. so well."
The top-scoring U.S. sailors in the Sonar and SKUD-18 classes have qualified the United States to compete in these two events at the 2008 Paralympic Games. The U.S. had already qualified in the 2.4mR class at the 2006 Disabled Sailing World Championship held in Perth, Australia.
Although the team of Mitchell/Creignou and Doerr/Donohue/Angle qualified the U.S. for these Paralympic events, these sailors may not be the ultimate U.S. representatives at the 2008 Paralympic Games. The U.S. Paralympic Team Trials, to be sailed in Newport, R.I., this October, is a winner-takes-all regatta that determines which sailors will represent the U.S. at the Games.
The Paralympic Games will be held in Beijing, China, in September 2008. The Paralympic Regatta will be sailed in Qingdao, a city located about 430 miles southeast of the Beijing.
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