US SAILING names Paralympians of the Year

Sonar racers Rick Doerr, Tim Angle, and Bill Donohue opened the 2007 season with a top performance at the 2007 US SAILING Rolex Miami OCR. In a tough international fleet, they placed second to capture a silver medal: they missed out on first place by a slim one-point margin to set the tone for a year of top performances. By September, they were in Rochester (N.Y.) to face a Sonar field of 27 teams from 16 different nations at the International Foundation for Disabled Sailing World Championship. At that regatta they peaked to capture the World Championship, which took place on the eve of the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials – Sailing. In October, they won the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials - Sailing in Newport (R.I.), in a hard-fought battle that earns them the right to represent the United States at the 2008 Paralympic Games in China. In 2006, Doerr was named the USOC Paralympic Athlete of the Year for sailing; this year, his teammates join him in this distinction. Doerr has been a member of the US Disabled Sailing Team (USDST), which includes the top-ranked sailors in each of the Paralympic classes, since 2001; in the past seven years, Angle had been named to the team six times. The entire team of Doerr, Angle, and Donohue were on the USDST in 2006 and 2007.