DEFENDING title-holders Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell have claimed a third straight World Championship crown, clinching gold in the Skud class with a day to spare at the IFDS Disabled Sailing World Championships.

The Skandia Team GBR duo claimed a second and a fourth on the water, and head into the one-race final day with an unbeatable eight-point lead over the American duo of Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou.

Even if the Portlanders were to have a torrid time on the water in today’s final race and end up tied on points with the Americans, Rickham and Birrell will have amassed enough race wins throughout the week to break the deadlock.

“It’s amazing – there are just no other words,” said an elated Rickham on claiming their world-beating hat-trick.

“It’s our third Worlds, and this is definitely the one Niki and I wanted more than anything else. To win, on home waters, at the Olympic venue is just perfect and everything we could have asked for.

“It hasn’t been the easiest of weeks and it’s been such varied conditions, from the beginning of the week with virtually no wind to Wednesday which was all over the place breezy but I think we’ve been pretty consistent, and possibly where some of our competitors have fallen we’ve just tried to make sure that we were there to make up the difference.

“It’s been a tough week for everybody – we had a spinnaker problem earlier in the week, today our main Aussie rival Dan had his mainsail fall down when he was leading the race.

“That’s sailing for you, and we’re just over the moon that it came good in the end for us.”

But even before the pair have collected their latest World Championship medals, the 24-year-old Birrell is already thinking ahead to the prospect of the Paralympic Games next year and achieving his dream of a medal at the same venue in 14 months’ time.

He said: “I just hope the selectors have picked up on the results and they like them and they send us to the Games. That’s the most important thing of these two events – we’ve won three worlds, we’ve won all the events pretty much, we just want to win the Games next year now.

Elsewhere, on the penultimate day of World Championship action, John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas reclaimed the top spot in the three-person Sonar event to line themselves up for a potential third world title as well.

The trio, who were crowned world champions in 2005 and 2006, and narrowly missed out in 2010, resumed the overall lead from their overnight position of third, thanks to a win in the first race of the day, and a fourth in race two.

Their Israeli rivals, who led the fleet at the close of play on Wednesday, boosted the Skandia Team GBR crew’s gold medal prospects when they were over the startline early in the second race, with the GBR team now leading by seven points heading into the final race today.

Helmsman Robertson is not celebrating yet, and knows there’s still work to be done.

He said: “It’s never over until it’s over, so we’ll wait until we’re on the podium.”

“The guys are not miles away so we’ve still got to keep our heads out of the boat, sail fast and be ahead or close enough at the finish to clinch it.

Britain’s Helena Lucas, in third place overall, has the narrowest of leads over USA’s Mark LeBlanc, with just a point separating the two, but with four other sailors, including her Skandia Team GBR team-mate Megan Pascoe also still capable of winning the bronze there will be a tense showdown in today’s final race.

Strong wind conditions are expected at the Weymouth and Portland venue for the final day of racing. The scheduled start time for the final race is 10.25am.