Piotr Cichocki has never lost his appetite for a scrap on the water, and at the World Sailing Inclusion Championships in Portimão, the Polish sailor has given himself two chances to prove it.
He is racing on two fronts in Portugal: the Para Inclusive One Person Keelboat, sailed solo in the Hansa 303, and the two-person event, where he's teamed up with his wife, Joanna.
Sharing a boat with your spouse sounds like a recipe for friction. Cichocki disagrees.
"My wife is fantastic, both at home and on the boat!" he said, laughing.
The Polish pair have been in outstanding form, with seven race wins from the ten sailed so far building them a 20-point lead heading into Saturday's final day.
Cichocki's solo campaign has gone just as well. Three strong races on Friday saw him overtake overnight leader Jens Kroker of Germany, putting him on top of the leaderboard in both events at once.
Conditions have not made it easy. "The sailing itself wasn't easy," Cichocki said. "We had very changeable wind directions and, on top of that, very strong currents in both events."
Still, he was in good spirits about it all. "Of course I'm happy. I haven't been this happy for a long time."
Sailing has run through Cichocki's whole life, from ambitious offshore campaigns to the top end of para sailing. It was during a round-the-world voyage that everything changed.
"It was during that round-the-world sailing that I developed the condition that led to me competing as a sailor with a disability," he explained. "I have artificial joint replacements in both legs."
He didn't walk away from the sport. Instead, he found a new route back into competition, representing Poland at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and building a reputation as a multiple world champion along the way.
Last year, in Oman, he won gold at the inaugural World Sailing Inclusion Championships alongside Olga Górnas-Grudzien in the RS Venture Connect. This year it's a different boat, a different partner, same hunger.
"What I love most about sailing is the competition, feeling my opponent breathing down my neck," he said. "I like the fight."
Looking further ahead, the 2027 World Sailing Championships in Gdynia, Poland, will fold in the Inclusion Championships, raising the prospect of Cichocki racing in front of a home crowd.
For now, there's unfinished business in Portimão. Just two points separate him from Germany's Jens Kroker in the one-person keelboat going into Saturday, with Portugal's João Pinto sitting in bronze on home waters.
The two-person result looks far more settled, with Cichocki and Joanna holding that 20-point buffer. Oman's Malik Al Qartoubi and Ghalya Al Jabri are tied on points with Korea's Mun Sungwon and Dongjin Yun in the fight for silver, with Portugal's Carlos Santos and João Pinto just two points further adrift.
Elsewhere on the water, Sweden's Fia Fjelddahl and Patric Rosenberg won two more races in the Para Inclusive Two Person Keelboat (RS Venture Connect) to push their lead out to ten points over Spain's Pau Toni Homar and Ramón Gutiérrez. Norway's Stian Kristiansen and Elliot Finnestrand sit third.
Great Britain's James Coxon swept all three races in the Para Inclusive One Person Multihull to extend his advantage over compatriots Val Millward and Bex Foulsham. Finland continues to dominate the 2.4mR fleet, with Marko Dahlberg leading an all-Finnish podium ahead of Rikard Bjurström, while Otto Dahlberg has moved past Niko Salomaa into bronze.
In the RS21 Vision Impairment fleet, the American crew of Duane Farrar, Barbara Bielinski, Denis Bell and Solomon Marini climbed into the top three on the second-last day. Britain's Lucy Hodges, Jamie Tylecote, Liam Cattermole and Steve Tylecote hold onto the lead, with Spain's Dani Anglada Pich, Carmen Lopez Garcia, Jordi Sánchez Pérez and Monica Azon Canalda second.
Vietnam's Truc Diep and Britain's Charlie Wolf split the two Wingfoil races between them. Wolf still leads overall, with fellow Brit Jazz Turner climbing to second after two third-place finishes.
There was no change at the top of either ILCA 6 fleet after Friday's racing. Hong Kong China's Tsz Hin Cheung leads the Para Intellectual Impairment class, and Portugal's José Campos remains in front in the Inclusive Cognitive Impairment category.
The championships wrap up on Saturday 10 October, run in partnership with Vela Solidária, the Municipality of Portimão and the Portuguese Sailing Federation, with backing from the America's Cup. For Cichocki, two leaderboards and one final day stand between him and the kind of fight he says he loves most.
