GREAT Britain’s Paralympic sailors are anticipating plenty of hotly-contested racing when the Para Sailing World Championships get underway in Melbourne today.

The regatta, which runs until Thursday, is the final Paralympic qualification event for countries hoping to make Rio 2016.

And with sailing having been removed from the Paralympic Games programme for Tokyo 2020, the race for Rio has added significance in addition to the usual pressures of a world title chase.

The British Sailing Team has already secured Rio qualification across the three Paralympic classes – the one-person 2.4mR, the two-person SKUD and the three-person Sonar – with London 2012 2.4mR gold medallist Helena Lucas also having earned individual selection in April.

While her own 2016 berth is assured, Lucas knows these worlds will be an important regatta in the Games build-up, with some 142 sailors from 31 nations set to compete across the three classes.

“It’s a world championship, so you always have the goal to be on the podium and definitely my sights are firmly set on that,” said Lucas, who will race in the 51-boat one-person 2.4mR fleet alongside Portland ace Megan Pascoe and Will Street.

Five-time SKUD world champions Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell are hoping for a sweeter finish to this year’s event, with the former admitting that losing the title on countback in 2014 left a “bitter taste”.

They will be racing in an 18-boat fleet – the biggest turnout for the SKUD class since 2011 in Weymouth and Portland.

The British Sailing Team has two entries among the 18-boat Sonar fleet, including the two-time world championship winning team and three-time Paralympians John Robertson, Steve Thomas and Hannah Stodel, who are all either based in Weymouth or on Portland.

“We’re feeling quite chilled and it feels like it’s clicking in the build up to the event, which is a nice place to be,” said Stodel. “We’re aiming for the medals and I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have our sights set on gold.”

Craig Wood, Steve Palmer and Liam Cattermole will also be looking to challenge in the Sonar event.