Sport-by-sport - Disability Sailing
John Robertson, Stephen Thomas and Hannah Stodel
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| Chairman | Stacey Clark | |
|---|---|---|
| Chief Executive | Sarah Treseder | |
| Performance Director | John Derbyshire |
Sport Profile
| Funding Award (2009-2013) | £1,748,900 |
| London 2012 Performance | 1 Gold, 1 Bronze |
| Athletes on World Class Performance Programme | 7 |
| Press Officer | Lindsey Bell |
| Press Officer tel | 02380 604 216 / 07900 570 221 |
| Website | http://www.skandiateamgbr.com |
| National governing body | Royal Yachting Association |
Despite Great Britain’s strong international track record on the water, the Disability Sailing team missed out on the podium spots at the Beijing Paralympics. The sport was awarded around £500,000 of additional funding from UK Sport to help them build towards securing medals for London 2012 and there are high hopes they can secure their first Paralympic medal.
The build-up has been promising with the team successful at world events, including three medals from the three classes at the 2011 World Championships at the Paralympic venue at Weymouth and Portland.
As an integrated programme, with many resources and opportunities shared with the Olympic squad, Disability Sailing has also benefitted from some of the investment made into the Olympic programme.
UK Sport’s Research and Innovation team has worked with sailing and a number of key partners from the commercial sector, including BAE Systems and McLaren on devising solutions and providing competitive edge interventions around weather forecasting on home waters.
UK Sport investment in Major Events helped to bring the IFDS World Championships to Weymouth and Portland in 2011, while there has been additional partnership work around the Sport Science & Medicine interventions within the sport.
UK Sport has also invested to help develop elite coaches, including two currently working within the Paralympic disciplines in sailing - Marcus Lynch who works with the Skud class and Mark Rushall who has been coaching the Sonar team. They have both been part of the Continuous Professional Development programme aimed at ensuring coaches in the UK are among the best qualified in the world.
Did You Know?
Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell have been sailing together in the Skud class since late 2007. Since the start of 2011, the pair has won eight medals (all silver and gold) at major regattas, and are current World Champions.
Selected Athletes:
Alexandra Rickham
Niki Birrell
Helena Lucas
John Robertson
Hannah Stodel
Stephen Thomas
