Poland's Piotr Cichocki claimed a rare double gold as the World Sailing Inclusion Championships wrapped up in Portimão on Saturday, while Sweden's Fia Fjelddahl and Patric Rosenberg survived a nerve-shredding last race to take the Para Inclusive Two Person Keelboat title.
Six days of racing had tested sailors across the full spread of Para Inclusive disciplines, from strong winds and chop early in the week to lighter, more tactical conditions by Saturday. The final day gave several fleets one last chance to shuffle the leaderboard.
Cichocki was the standout performer of the week. He won gold in both the Para Inclusive One Person Keelboat (Hansa 303) and, sailing alongside his wife Joanna Cichocka, the Inclusive Two Person Keelboat.
The singles title was the tighter affair. Cichocki went into the final day just two points clear of Germany's Jens Kroker, but two more race wins settled the argument emphatically. Kroker took silver, with Portugal's João Pinto third.
The doubles was more one-sided. Cichocki and Cichocka had already built a 20-point cushion before Saturday and simply extended it, finishing 25 points clear of Portugal's Carlos Santos-João Pinto and the Korean pairing of Mun Sungwon and Dongjin Yun.
"I'm very happy that I managed to win gold in both competitions," said Cichocki. "I love Portimão. The weather is beautiful, and everything worked out."
Joanna, asked how the husband-and-wife team make it work, kept it simple: "I try not to disturb Piotr when he's concentrating. We work well together." Next year's championships head to Gdynia, their home waters, and the pair are already thinking ahead. "Of course, it will be a great pleasure for us to welcome everyone to Gdynia," Joanna said. Cichocki added there would be no currents to deal with at home, "the wind is changeable, and it's definitely cooler."
The real drama, though, was in the RS Venture Connects fleet. Fjelddahl and Rosenberg started the day ten points clear, only for a tenth-place finish in the opening race to cut that lead to two over Spain's Pau Toni Homar and Ramón Gutiérrez.
Everything came down to the final race. "We knew that we just had to have one boat between us and Spain, and we had one boat between us and Spain," Fjelddahl said. "And then, on the last upwind, another boat came in between us. So stressful!" An Austrian boat then passed the Spanish crew in the closing stages, handing Sweden gold on countback. "Thank you, Austria!" Fjelddahl laughed afterwards.
For Rosenberg it carried extra weight after near misses in previous championships. "It was kind of easy until today. Today it was really, really hard," he said. "I really wanted this." Fjelddahl's week had already included a personal highlight, an engagement after her boyfriend proposed in the Algarve. Spain took silver, Norway's Stian Kristiansen and Elliot Finnestrand the bronze.
Great Britain's James Coxon produced one of the week's best stories, winning the Para Inclusive One Person Multihull title in the Challenger class after returning to sailing following a diagnosis of a rare form of motor neurone disease. He had arrived with little recent racing under his belt. Three straight wins on Friday put him in control, and a third and a first on Saturday sealed it.
"It's been brilliant. This is the first international competition I've done since coming back to sailing," Coxon said. "So it's absolutely amazing. I'm speechless." He led a clean British sweep of the multihull podium, with Val Millward and Bex Foulsham taking silver and bronze.
Lucy Hodges and her British crew, Jamie Tylecote, Liam Cattermole and Steve Tylecote, defended their Vision Impairment title in the RS21s despite strong pressure from Spain. "It's been a lovely regatta, bringing everything, waves, chop, wind and no wind," Hodges said. Jamie Tylecote credited clear communication as the key to the team's success. Hodges, though, was more focused on the bigger picture. "The ultimate goal really was to get more countries involved, and we've done that," she said.
Spain's Dani Anglada Pich, Carmen Lopez Garcia, Jordi Sánchez Pérez and Monica Azon Canalda took silver, with Christina Morris, Ben Tylecote, Karl Haines and Colin Midgley claiming bronze.
Finland's Marko Dahlberg led the Para Inclusive One Person Technical Keelboat (2.4mR) from day one and finished on top, ahead of his son Otto Dahlberg and Rikard Bjurström. Hong Kong's Tsz Hin Cheung took the Para Intellectual Impairment title in the ILCA 6, and Portugal's José Campos won the Inclusive Cognitive Impairment gold.
Inclusive Wingfoil made its debut as a demonstration event, sailed in a new seated discipline. Light winds killed off racing on the final day, leaving overnight leader Charlie Wolf of Great Britain in gold, ahead of compatriot Jazz Turner and Vietnam's Truc Diep. Great Britain also took the Nations Trophy for top performing country overall.
In total, 222 athletes from 40 nations competed in Portimão, the second edition of the championships. World Sailing's Inclusive Development Programme, supported in part by funding from the America's Cup, has helped emerging sailing nations access coaching and international competition.
World Sailing CEO David Graham said the event showed inclusive sailing was continuing to grow. "The vision of it is just going to get bigger and stronger. We're testing new disciplines here, and it's been a phenomenal week," he said, also thanking organisers Vela Solidária and the volunteers who ran the regatta. "These events don't work without the organising committees, and we've had a special one this time."
