NSWIS sailors remain in front, Sieders 8th in canoe final

Defending Paralympic champions in the Skud-18 (two-person keelboat) category, NSWIS’s Liesl Tesch and Daniel Fitzgibbon (pictured after winning gold in London), consolidated their overall lead with further victories in race seven and eight on the waters at Marina de Gloria.

Tesch and Fitzgibbon now sit on eight points from six wins and a second after eight races, ahead of the Canadian and British crews who are both on 23 points. Crews can drop their worst result, which for the NSWIS pair is a second placing.

In the Sonar, three-person kneelboat category, Australia’s Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and NSWIS’s Jonathan Harris won race seven before a third-place finish in race eight.

The crew leads with 16 points with three races left, ahead of their nearest competitor the United States on 27 points.

There are two more days of competition left before the medals are awarded although Tesch and Fitzgibbon are in such untouchable form they may sow up the gold medal earlier.

In the canoe-sprint finals, NSWIS paddler Colin Sieders was eighth in the men’s KL1, and conceded it wasn’t his best race.

“I’ve struggled the last two days, I don’t know why. But it’s the Paralympics it’s awesome, first one, so hopefully we can do another one in Tokyo,” Sieders told the Australian Paralympic Committee’s media team.