Miami OCR – Podium for Paul Tingley…Again!

Two times in one month! Not a bad start to the year for the 2008 Paralympic Gold medallist Paul Tingley (RNSYS) who has already secured his own spot for the 2012 Paralympic Games. Paul's second place result at Miami OCR today will be his second trip to podium this month after winning the bronze medal at the 2012 IFDS World Championships in Port Charlotte, FL. Tingley attributes part of his success to his passion and dedication to the sport. 'I enjoy the game of chasing that invisible force of nature – the wind. It's addictive'. Of course, he admits that it takes more than just that to acheive success in the sport. 'It is important to be well-prepared and execute on game day. However, the work before the regatta is where most of the results come from.'

SKUD team McRoberts/Louttit (RVicYC) can also celebrate their strong finish to their regatta with a 2, 4, fourth overall. McRoberts/Louttit (RVicYC) have also secured their 2012 Paralympic spot and are now working hard to regain some time in the boat together after re-partnering in Nov of 2011. The newly formed Sonar team Millar/Lutes/Campbell (RVYC/Sask) moved up a place today to finish off their regatta in seventh overall.

On the Olympic side, congratulations goes out to Radial sailor Danielle Dube (RNSYS) who has qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games. Her 15th place in Miami combined with her Perth Worlds result finds her 4 points ahead of RVYC's Isabella Bertold. 2008 Olympian Lisa Ross (RNSYS) was top Canadian at this event, placing 12th overall. Unfortunately it wasn't enough for Olympic qualification when combined with her overall Perth results. High Performance Director, Ken Dool remarked that 'It was a tough battle out there and we are very proud of Danielle and the rest of the Radial fleet who competed well throughout their trials'.

The Laser Canadian Olympic battle continues on the water tomorrow in the medal race between David Wright (RCYC) and Chris Dold (RCYC). Wright had a 8, 16 and now leads in trial points by 2 while Chris scored a 19, 6 on the day. They are positioned in third & eighth respectively heading into tomorrows medal race. Regardless of the outcome, there is no question that the Laser men have treated Canada to an exciting week of racing.

There is a lot of medal race action to come in many of the classes tomorrow with a total of 11 Canadian boats in the medal races!

Finn sailors, Douglas, Wilton, & Robitaille are positioned tightly in fifth – seventh going into their medal race. 49er sailors, Cook/ Lowden (5th), Ladha/Inkpen (7th) & Gooderham /Hogan (9th) are also in close range going into tomorrows action. Star team Clarke/Bjorn are sitting in ninth overall after a 5/OCS today. And finally RSX sailors Dave Hayes & Dominique Vallee are both racing tomorrow currently sitting in fifth & sixth respectively.

There will be live tracking on the medal race courses tomorrow. Be sure to follow!

http://rmocr.ussailing.org/index.php/multimedia/

Full results that can be found at Miami OCR website.