Paralympic Sailing Team is Ready!
Only 2 days before the Paralympics kick off and the Canadians are well prepared! The sailing Canadian Paralympic Sailors team have arrived in Weymouth and had a few days to practice with their competition to get their boats completely tuned and ready to race. Team Leader Brian Todd sends in a report as of Sunday.
The rain stopped and the sun came out in Weymouth today, which set up for an excellent day of training. The Sonar, Skud and 2.4 all spent a full day on the water in one of the few remaining days to get the boat and rig tuned and ready for the Games. With the opening ceremony in London on the 29th, travel back on the 30th and measurement between it all, it makes the next few days on the water even more important. From now on it’s the details that will be worked on.
All of our sailors are getting ramped up for the racing, each day coaches set courses where plenty of sparring takes place as they speed tune with the competition to get a feel for what will be coming in less than a week. The 2.4mR class has a very tough field of sailors, they have the largest fleet with 16 boats, three of them are past World Champions, including our own Paul Tingley. The Skud 18 fleet also has its’ share of podium performers among them including our own John McRoberts and Stacie Louttit who have set everything aside to ensure that they can be at the top of their game. Bruce Millar, Logan Campbell and Scott Lutes are the up and coming team at this Games, they formed the team less than a year ago but the time they have put in since then has been the strongest in the fleet and the work has paid off already with a podium at the Sail for Gold event here in June, on the same course they will be racing on next week.
Tonight we had a reception hosted by the Mayors of the local communities – Dorsett, Weymouth and Portland All the mayors had their gold chain of office proudly displayed and all the teams had their uniforms proudly displayed. It was fun to speak with the local community leaders and get their perspective on what the Paralympics and Olympics meant to them. The overall feeling is that these events will change their communities forever; the children in the community were especially impressed to be able to meet athletes from so many nations.
To follow the Paralympic Team, watch the Canadian Sailing Team on facebook, www.canadiansailingteam.ca for updates and the London Paralympic site here for full results. Lets see the red and white over the line first!
