PORTLAND’S Megan Pascoe celebrated gold in the 2.4mR Paralympic class – her fourth straight podium finish of the year – at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Holland.

There was a fierce battle for honours in the class in the Dutch leg of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup, with Pascoe extending her podium streak to four medals from four events. She held off Paralympic champion Helena Lucas in a nail-biting last race, where just one point separated the two team-mates.

“It was getting exciting out there, and it’s nice that it was another Brit to get excited with,” 26-year-old Pascoe of the final race showdown. “I think it’s really good for our team we’ve got some great guys coming up and it’s been a really good regatta.”

The island sailor was delighted with her consistent show last week, across a mixture of weather conditions on the Ijsselmeer.

“I think my mental resilience was a real positive – every time a shift went wrong it was just a case of trying again, and keep on coming back. I showed my consistency, I didn’t drop outside the top three so I’m really happy with that.

Lucas agreed that Medemblik had provided a tough test for the sailors this week.

“I think we’ve had everything from rain, hail, 20 knots, no wind. It’s been probably one of the trickiest regattas I’ve done for quite a while,” the 2012 gold medallist explained.

“It was good racing though, it came down to who beat who so there was a little bit of match racing going on up the second beat. Meg did a great job and hung on to the lead and did really well.”

Portland’s Alison Young also maintained her medal-winning streak in the Laser Radial event, claiming bronze on the water and a third podium spot from her past three regattas. 

The Olympian went into the day with the yellow leader’s jersey, and finished the six-boat medal race in third behind Ireland’s Annalise Murphy and the host nation’s Olympic silver medallist Marit Bouwmeester. 

All three sailors were then tied on points, with the tie-break determined on the medal race positions.

“It was a close little battle with Marit and unfortunately couldn’t get past her on the run, so finished up third,” Young explained.

“But things are moving on – I spent most of last year finishing fourth, so now with three regattas and three medals things are going in the right direction.”

Mark Andrews kept the run of British Finn success going on Saturday, claiming a last-gasp gold and his first ever senior podium finish.

The 27-year-old Scotsman be-comes the fourth British sailor in four events to top the podium in the heavyweight dinghy class, with Ed Wright, Giles Scott and Andrew Mills – who won Saturday’s medal race to claim bronze – all winning recent World Cup and EUROSAF events.

Andrews went into the medal race in third place.  Hyeres World Cup winner Mills led the race from the start, and at one stage looked like ousting his team-mate from the podium.

However, the Largs sailor fought to the end to finish second in the medal race and claim the overall victory.


“It’s pretty fantastic – it was down to the wire,” Andrews explained.  “I think at the windward mark I’d maybe just got into the medals then there was a nice little gybe and gust, I took a few boats and got into second place.  It wasn’t over until it was over.

“It’s an awesome confidence boost. The other Finn guys are amazing – Millsy and Giles and Ed – we’ve all won an event each this year so it’s going to be tight all the way up to Rio in 2016.”

After his victory, Andrews once more paid tribute to former Finn sailor, team-mate and Olympic gold and silver medallist Andrew Simpson from Sherborne, who died earlier this month in an America’s Cup training accident.

“I’d known Bart for 10 years or so since I was fresh out of school. He kind of took all the guys – not just the Finn sailors but everyone in the team – under his wing. 

“He was always supportive of everyone and the kind of person you could talk to if you had a
bad day, or anything technical. 

“He was that perfect guy who always had time for someone and was obviously a fantastic sailor as well. 

“Definitely this one’s for him and it’s good that we kept the Finn winning streak going.”

There was bronze also for the Paralympic Sonar trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas, who posted three and two in their final two races of the regatta to maintain their podium spot.

It was a tough end to the week for Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre, who sailed a consistent series to head into the 470 women’s medal race in second overall, but finished sixth in the race to end their regatta in fifth place overall, falling the wrong side of a three-way tie-break.

The EUROSAF Champions Sail-ing Cup circuit now wings its way to Great Britain for the Sail for Gold Regatta, held on the 2012 waters of Weymouth and Portland from June 9-13. 

RYA Olympic manager Stephen  Park said: “We’re looking forward to hosting the third stage of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup, which provides a great opportunity for the international fleet to return to the 2012 Olympic waters for hopefully some great competition.