Stodel drops in overall standings (From Gazette)

Stodel drops in overall standings

10:52am Friday 12th September 2008 in Sailing By Simon Spurgeon

Mersea sailor Hannah Stodel will head into the final day of the Paralympic regatta knowing there is little more than pride to battle for in the Sonar Class.

Having headed to the Games as one of the hot gold medal favourites, Stodel, together with skipper John Robertson and Stephen Thomas, have had a disppointing week and go into tomorrow’s final race of the series way off the pace for top honours in eighth place.

The trio have never really recovered from a ninth place finish in their opening race and their hopes nosedived with another ninth place in race four.

Their cause was not helped yesterday when two of the three scheduled races were cancelled due to light winds, but the Paralympic organisers have made up time with three races today and the final two tomorrow, rather than the intended one.

Stodel, Robertson and Thomas had hoped to make up some ground on their rivals at the top of the leaderboard today, but despite a third in race nine, finishes of eighth and sixth in their other outings saw them drop to eighth in the overall standings.

The British trio are currently on 38 points, a full 17 points off the pace of leaders Bruno Jourdren, Herve Larhant and Nicolas Vimont-Vicary of France.

Germany’s Jens Kroker, Robert Prem and Siegmund Mainka lie in the bronze medal position on 26 points heading into the final day’s sailing, with Australia’s Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and Graeme Martin in silver on 24.