France's Damien Seguin wins gold medal at regatta

France’s Damien Seguin (shown here), the 2.4mR class’s early leader, finished 3-1 yesterday at the Rolex Miami OCR regatta, which has been in Coconut Grove all week. He posted 17 points overall to win a gold medal that he can now hang next to his Paralympic Gold from Athens and his Silver from Qingdao. Seguin’s performance increased his lead over Canada’s Silver Medalist Paul Tingley (with a 2-7) to a staggering 25 points--quite an accomplishment in a fleet of 25 boats.

"Damien is very good and very consistent and has been at this a long time," said the USA’s Mark LeBlanc (New Orleans), whose finish of eighth overall here (over the 11th posted by fellow US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics member John Ruf) will finally give him his shot at a Paralympic medal. "Hopefully we can train together," he said.

LeBlanc explained that he was in the Paralympic Trials in 2007 and tied for first but, losing out to tie-breaker rules, did not go to the Games, which was heart breaking. "To be honest, looking back now to where I am versus then I can say I wasn’t ready then," said LeBlanc. "I had no idea what was going on and was just going out and sailing, but this time around I’m well prepared and ready to go to the Paralympics."

Medals will be awarded to the top three boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class today.

Regatta Headquarters is located at the US Sailing Center Miami, an official Olympic training center, in Coconut Grove. Event organizers have partnered with the city of Miami to provide world-class venues for competition. Additional hosts for the event include Coral Reef Yacht Club, Key Biscayne Yacht Club, Coconut Grove Sailing Club, Miami Rowing Club and Shake-a-Leg Miami. These sailing organizations host classes onshore, as well as help run the on-the-water racing. The Coral Reef Yacht Club also hosts the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.