From world records to race wins: Coxon shines in Portimão

For Coxon, sailing has had a pull that other sports could not quite match.

The Welshman began in Lasers and spent time on the British squad before stepping away from competitive sailing after university. His sporting path would eventually take a very different direction after he was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease that stopped his left arm from working.

That led him into para-cycling and to an extraordinary run of success in recumbent cycling. After being forced to retire from work, he decided to commit himself fully to achieving something special.

“I managed to break, I think, four world records in my time cycling, and then the last one was just a couple of weeks ago,” he said, referring to his latest Masters 1-hour two-wheel recumbent world record.

The achievement came after a demanding training programme of ‘15 to 20 hours a week, mostly on my own in a shed on a trainer’.

But after years on the bike, Coxon has increasingly found himself drawn back towards the sport where his competitive career began.

“You just can’t beat the feel of sailing,” he said. “You can’t beat the feel of being on the water and feeling the wind in the sheets, the sail, looking at the wind shifts.

“There’s so much to it, compared to cycling on a bike especially. There’s just so much to it and it’s just a lovely feel.”

That return is being rewarded so far in Portimão, where Coxon tops the Para Inclusive One Person Multihull standings in his Challenger trimaran at the halfway stage of competition. He added two further race wins and a second from Wednesday’s three races to extend his lead over compatriots Val Millward and Bex Foulsham.

It was the kind of racing day that reminded Coxon exactly why he had wanted to come back.

For Coxon, though, the week isn’t just about his own place on the leaderboard. Competing at the World Sailing Inclusion Championships for the first time, he has been struck by the breadth of sailors and experiences gathered in Portimão.

“There’s so many people with different needs doing fantastically well,” he said. “Takes your breath away.

“It’s just a lovely, lovely atmosphere.”

And after a journey that has taken him from sailing to cycling and now back again, Coxon appears to have rediscovered exactly what he was looking for.

“I’m loving the sailing again in international competition,” he said. “It’s fantastic.”

After some early waiting for breeze, there was plenty of standout racing elsewhere across the championships on Wednesday.

In the Inclusive Cognitive Impairment (ILCA 6) event, Portugal’s José Campos enjoyed an impressive day, claiming another three race wins ahead of teammate Rodrigo Pereira, while in the Para Intellectual Impairment (ILCA 6) standings, Hong Kong China’s Tsz Hin Cheung continues to hold the advantage ahead of St Kitts and Nevis sailor Elijah Walters and Trinidad and Tobago’s Ivan Stollmeyer.
 
Finnish dominance continues at the halfway stage of the Para Inclusive One Person Technical Keelboat (2.4mR) event, occupying the top four positions of the leaderboard. Marko Dahlberg secured another two race wins and a fourth to maintain his lead over Rikard Bjurström, with Niko Salomaa round out the top three.

Sweden hold the lead in the Para Inclusive Two Person Keelboat (RS Venture Connect) where Fia Fjelddahl and Patric Rosenberg continue to edge Spain’s Pau Toni Homar and Ramón Gutiérrez by two points.  

There was no change at the top of the Vision Impairment standings on Wednesday, with Great Britain’s Lucy Hodges, Jamie Tylecote, Liam Cattermole and Steve Tylecote still leading the RS21 league over Spain’s  Spain’s Dani Anglada Pich, Carmen Lopez Garcia, Jordi Sánchez Pérez and Monica Azon Canalda.

In the Para Inclusive One Person Keelboat (Hansa 303), however, Germany’s Jens Kroker broke free of the three-way points tie at the top of the table thanks to two race wins. Overnight leader Gauthier Bril, France, and Poland’s Piotr Cichocki sit in second and third.

Cichocki and Joanna Cichocka were impressive in the Inclusive Two Person Keelboat (Hansa 303), extending their lead over the rest of the fleet with another race win and a third to now sit 11 points ahead of Korea’s Mun Sungwon and Dongjin Yun in second at the midpoint of the competition.

In the Inclusive Wingfoil demonstration event, Charlie Wolf and Guillaume Colin remain the ones to beat, sharing the race wins between them across Wednesday’s three races. Briton Wolf has a four point lead over his French rival after nine races.