International 2.4mR World Championship at Hobart, Tasmania - Overall

Megan Pascoe and Matt Bugg racing at the 2.4mR Worlds in Hobart © Angus Calvert

Malcolm Cooper at the 2.4mR Worlds in Hobart © Angus Calvert

Great Britain's Megan Pascoe wins

Disabled British sailor Megan Pascoe has won the 2016 World Championship for the International 2.4mR single-handed yacht with two final races to sail today.

Pascoe (28) won both races seven and eight yesterday, relishing the light winds and benefitting from several significant changes in wind strength and direction of the past two days.

Yesterday's two wins gave her three straight wins giving her a net score of 11 points after one discard and her first world championship victory in the 2.4mR class.

In second place, after a luckless day, is Tasmanian and Australian champion and Paralympic representative Matt Bugg who finished third and second in yesterday's race after being overtaken when leading in both races. Bugg is on a net 30.

Rikard Bjurstrom (FIN) is third overall on 49 points with a 2-3 score, with New Zealander Paul Francis on 54 points (5-7 yesterday), closely followed by Athens and Sydney Paralympic representative Peter Thompson fifth overall on 59 points with a score 4-8 yesterday.

Niko Salomaa (FIN) is in sixth position on 62 points while Tasmanian Stephen 'Rowdy' McCullum, who represented the RYCT at the 2015 Worlds in Finland, has the same net pointscore, yesterday placings 6-4.

Pascoe is unbeatable going into today's final two races from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania when two discard races apply.

The renowned British sailor is a position that even if Matt Bugg wins the last two races and she finishes last in each, she can discard these races and still finish well clear of Bugg.

"I've never before in front so many times in a regatta, only to get run over near the finish line," Bugg said after yesterday's racing. "I lost the last race to Megan by just seconds.

"Now I'm looking for a great run of good fortunate on the race track, including the Rio Paralympics," added Bugg who is expected to be named in the team for Rio in next few weeks.

Pascoe is one the finest disabled women sailors, despite suffering from cerebral palsy. She saw this as no reason not to aspire to anything she felt drawn to in a sporty family where dinghy racing, windsurfing and triathlons were normal weekend activities.

Pascoe's sharp and clear thinking has compensated for her undermined physical capability. The result is a highly focused, competitive woman whose single- minded confidence is born out of careful analysis rather than bone- headed stubbornness.

"I will be competing at the Paralympics; it just might not be this one," she says with a confident and genuine smile.

Silver Medal for Matt Bugg at International 2.4mR World Championships (from Cora Zillich, Australian Sailing)

Australian Sailing Team's Paralympic sailor Matt Bugg (TAS) has won the silver medal at the International 2.4mR World Championships which concluded on Hobart's Derwent River on Sunday (10 January 2015).

The silver medal wraps up a successful month of sailing for London 2012 Paralympian Matt Bugg, which included his first World Championship podium finish and Para World Sailing bronze and Sailing World Cup silver medal on Melbourne's Port Philip in December as well as a sixth consecutive Australian championship title at the beginning of January.

Runner-up Bugg achieved good boat speed and, in general, sound tactical sailing against the world's best 2.4mR class sailors, both disabled and able-bodied. However, finishing second to British sailor Megan Pascoe in the Worlds after a luckless regatta on the unseasonably fickle wind and waters of the Derwent in his home town, was not the end of his summer of sailing in Australia Matt Bugg had hoped for.

Early in the week, Bugg had dominated the 32-boat fleet in the Australian championship, also an open event, winning four of the seven races to collect his sixth consecutive national championship.

At the Nationals, two of the 14-strong Finnish team who shipped their boats in a container to Hobart, filled the minor placings, Janne Laine second and Jan Forsbom third. Megan Pascoe placed fourth, winning one race.

In the Worlds, Bugg, a member of the conducting club, the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, failed to win a race although several times holding a commanding lead going into the final leg.

At the end of the penultimate day of racing, with Pascoe winning both races, and Bugg placing 3-2, the renowned English sailor born with celebral palsy, was unbeatable.

Even if Matt Bugg went on to win the last two races and Pascoe finished last, she could discard these races and still finish well clear of Bugg.

Despite a collision involving Pascoe and a start signal misunderstanding by Bugg the two Paralympic class sailors finished eleventh and eighth respectively in the last race. Both Pascoe and Bugg chose to drop the final race results as their second discard from the 10 race series, leaving the British sailor with a net 13 points and the Tasmanian with a net 34 points and thus first and second in the Worlds.

Third place overall went to New Zealand Paralympic sailor Paul Francis who improved his placings as the regatta progressed, ending with a net 48 points.

"I've never before in front so many times in a regatta, only to get run over near the finish line," Bugg said after yesterday's racing. "I lost the last race to Megan by just seconds.

"The winds for these worlds championships have been light and flukey, only in the last race did we get a constant 10 knot breeze," the Tasmanian sailor said.

"Now I'm looking for a great run of good fortune on the race track, including the Rio Paralympics," added Bugg, who is expected to be named in the team for Rio over the coming months.

Next sailing for Megan Pascoe has not yet been decided as she just missed representing Great Britain at the Rio Paralympics, but for Matt Bugg it will be soon off to Europe to continue regatta racing and training to represent Australia at the Rio Paralympic Games.

Overall Results: