Para World Sailing Rankings

Southampton, UK (July 8, 2016) – The Para World Sailing Rankings have been released with Helena Lucas (GBR) 2.4 Norlin OD #1 and the teams of Great Britain topping the SKUD18 rankings and Australia the Sonar.

In the final rankings before the Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition, Lucas will go in to the summer showpiece as 2.4 Norlin OD #1, as well as the defending Paralympic champion.

Australia’s Matthew Bugg has moved up to #2 thanks to an impressive run of form this year which included his maiden international regatta win at the Sailing World Cup Hyeres.

Current world champion in the 2.4 class, Germany’s Heiko Kroeger sits in #8.

In the SKUD18, Great Britain’s Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell retain their top spot with world champions Monika Gibes and Piotr Cichocki (POL) moving up from #11 to #4. The Polish duos rise was helped by two wins in quick succession in Medemblik, the Netherlands where they took home the Para World Sailing Championship and the SKUD18 International Championships in the space of a couple of weeks.

Current SKUD18 Paralympic gold medallists, Australia’s Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch currently hold #5.

Moving from #3 to Sonar #1 are Australia’s Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and Jonathan Harris. In the three ranking events in 2016 the trio have a second, third and fourth place finishes and they switch places with the previous #1 team from Norway of Aleksander Wang-Hansen, Per Eugen Kristiansen and Marie Solberg.

Current Paralympic champions, USA’s Rick Doerr, Bradley Kendall and Hugh Freund move up two places from #8 to #6.

Complete ranking information: http://www.sailing.org/sailors/disabled/disabled_sailing_rankings.php