PORTLAND sailor Megan Pascoe is still holding out hope that her sport will be included in the 2020 Paralympic Games.

International Paralympic Com-mittee (IPC) chiefs last weekend decided that sailing would not be part of the event in Tokyo.

The news of sailing’s omission was met with consternation by many in the watersports community, including 2.4mR keelboat ace Pascoe.

But she, along with others who had their sights set on competing in Japan in five years’ time, are now going to look towards the Inter-national Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) to do all they can to overturn the decision.

Reacting to Saturday’s announcement, she told Echosport: “It was such a bittersweet moment on Saturday when we got the decision, especially as it was just after the successes of such a great event at the Miami World Cup.

“The whole Paralympic sailing movement had such a great event that the news is a big blow all over the world.

“We are hoping that IFDS, with the help of ISAF (International Sailing Federation), can lobby the IPC to get the decision overturned.”

She went on to add: “The social media response all around the world has been amazing and I would like to thank everyone for their support of Paralympic sailing.

“I think we need to work on the positives and the fact that there is still Rio 2016 and the British Sailing Team is working hard towards that.

“We had three golds and five silvers in Miami, with two of the silvers from the Paralympic team, so we are in a good place with under two years to go.”

Pascoe, who won one of those silver medals in Miami, will soon be back in training before heading off to Palma in Majorca for the Princess Sofia Trophy.