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Paralympic Sailing - Kinsale Trio are London Bound

9th July 2011
Paralympic Sailing - Kinsale Trio are London Bound
John Twomey and his crew have qualified for the London Paralympics in a nailbiting finish at the IFDS worlds writes Claire Bateman.

Coming into racing today at the IFDS World Championships at Weymouth with one race to go, in the Sonar Class John Twomey and his crew Anthony Hegarty and Ian Costello from Kinsale Yacht Club were fairly confident they would take one of the six qualifying spots left for the 2012 Paralympic Regatta at Weymouth. Eight of the 14 places available had already been allocated.

shillelagh

John Twomey has qualified in the Sonar class for next year's Paralympic Games in London. Photo: Bob Bateman

However, one can never be sure of anything until the last race has been sailed. Little did they know that such was to be the case today and with wind strength of 30 knots the last race for all classes was abandoned.

Jubilation then set in as the Irish crew realized they were indeed qualified, taking the second spot behind USA of the six remaining places. They were followed by Australia, Canada, Austria and Japan in that order making up the total of 14 sailors to compete in the Sonar Paralympic fleet in 2012.

Published in Olympics 2012
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