Pocket rocket Lucas 11 points clear of nearest rival

Stuart Alexander
Tuesday 04 September 2012 19:43 BST
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Helena Lucas, the pocket rocket of Britain's paralympic sailing squad, is putting on the performance of her career on the waters of Portland Harbour.

The only woman in the 16-strong fleet of 2.4mR singlehanders, she goes into the final three races of the series of 11 in the gold medal position after notching up four wins in the eight so far. She is 11 points clear of her nearest rival, Heiko Kroger of Germany.

Life is tighter for the SKUD pairing of Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell. They are equal second on points with Jen French and Jean-Paul Creignou of the United States and four points behind Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch of Australia.

But the countback puts them in the bronze medal position so a big effort is needed in their last three races – it looks as if the medals will surely be distributed between these three countries – and the conditions remain tricky.

The last race for the three-person Sonar had to be abandoned on Tuesday while Britain's trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas was leading. Overall they are sixth but in close enough contention at least to aim for bronze, even if the gold is already a lost cause.

"It was a good day, I think," said Stodel. "If you look at the scores, the right people are behind us and there are loads of protests in tonight so, hopefully, that will shake it all up again. It's anybody's game at the moment."

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