Pictured: Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.) and Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine, pictured), US Sailing Team Sperry
Sonar (Open Three-Person Paralympic Keelboat)
Updates:
April 30:
Pictured: Team USA’s Doerr, Kendell and Freund, Sonar class. Photo: Jen Edney/US Sailing.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2016
Hyères, France – Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.) and Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine) have earned selection to the Rio 2016 U.S. Paralympic Sailing Team based on the results of the US Sailing Paralympic Athlete Selection Series in the Sonar three-person keelboat. The trio have been the top-performing American Sonar team since London 2012, and have earned medals at several of the world’s premier adaptive sailing events. This will be the second Team USA appearance for Doerr, who competed at Beijing 2008, and the first career Paralympic Games for Kendell and Freund.
“It’s been a long journey since 2008, and this seems to be a culmination of our efforts, though we have a lot of work left to do,” said Doerr. “It’s really exciting that we finally put everything together, and sailed a really good year [of regattas] to make this happen.”
Doerr, a 2007 Disabled Sailing World Champion in the Sonar, is the longest-tenured member of the US Sailing Team, with over sixteen years on the roster. Doerr, Kendell and Freund have been sailing as a team for the past seven years, and finished second by a narrow margin in the London 2012 Paralympic Selection Series. Since that first campaign together, Doerr, Kendell and Freund have achieved a new level of consistency and speed under coach Mike Ingham (Rochester, N.Y.), who has won over 20 national and continental championships in his career.
The team has won five medals at Sailing World Cup Miami, North America’s premier Olympic and Paralympic classes regatta, in the past seven years. In 2015 the three Sonar athletes won the Sunbrella Golden Torch Award in Miami, given to the top-performing American boat at the event. Doerr, Kendell and Freund were the first Paralympic-class athletes to gain this distinction in the 26-year history of the event.
“Our confidence level right now is super high,” said Freund, a 2011 graduate of Roger Williams University, who began his Paralympic sailing career while still an undergraduate student. “We’re working better together as a team than we have at any point in the years we’ve been together. We’ve got a ton of training camps planned, and every regatta that we can sail in, we will sail in. We’re making sure we maximize our training opportunities on the water [both] at home and in Rio.”
“We’ve been working really hard, and the next month in going to be really busy,” said Kendell, who will compete with him teammates at Sailing World Cup Hyères in France this week, and at the Para World Sailing Championships in the Netherland in late May. “We’ll be in and out of different countries, and our hometowns. We want to medal at each event we enter, and to be winning [consistently] going into the Paralympics.”
Challenging for a medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympic regatta will represent the fulfillment of a long-held dream, said Freund. “It’s going to be a great feeling to be the team representing the U.S., with our country behind us and our flag above us.”
Pictured: Doerr, Kendell, Freund and coach Ingham training before the start of The Sailing World Cup in Hyeres, France 2016.
February 7:
Selection Event #2, Sailing World Cup Hyères – Homepage & Results
January 29:
Sailing World Cup Miami Recap – In the Paralympic Sonar class, US Sailing Team Sperry athletes Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.) and Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine) were the top American boat, finishing 5th. “Team USA 1,” as they are known based on their sail number, are the current leaders in the Rio 2016 athlete selection series in their class, but Miami does not form part of the series for Sonar athletes.
“Our main goal was to work on our starts here in Miami, and we did good work in that area,” said Freund, the bowman. “We started well. Coming out of [the first selection event at Para Sailing Worlds in] Melbourne, that was where we identified our biggest potential gain.”
December 4:
2015 Para World Sailing Championships, Melbourne, Recap – US adaptive athletes completed racing at the 2015 Para World Sailing Championships in Melbourne, Australia on December 3, an event with important implications for the 2016 US Paralympic Sailing Team. In addition to being Paralympic sailing’s premier event for 2015, the regatta also served as part of US Sailing’s Rio 2016 selection system for the Sonar and SKUD-18, two of the three classes sailed at the Paralympic Games. American athletes showed competitive speed in all three Paralympic classes in Melbourne, and will continue to focus on improving in the lead up to the 2016 Games.
“The Para World Sailing Championship in Melbourne was one of the most competitive fields of athletes in Paralympic sailing history,” said Betsy Alison (Newport, R.I.), US Sailing Team Sperry Coach and Chair of the Para World Sailing Committee, the leadership body of the sport. “The performance of the US sailors at this worlds was good, but there is room to improve. Our coaching staff has identified several key areas for improvement that will have a significant impact on results in upcoming events in the new year. We are very close to being able to stand tall on the podium on a consistent basis.”
In the Sonar class, the team of Beijing 2008 Paralympian and Disabled Sailing World Champion Ricky Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.) and Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine) sailed a consistent event, and finished 6th overall in the 18-boat fleet while also qualifying the US as a country for Rio 2016 in the Sonar. Doerr, Kendell and Freund threatened the podium throughout the regatta, but could not get there in the end. “In the Sonar class, the point spread between the top teams was small, with only five points separating 3rd place to 6th,” noted Alison. For the veteran team, the event can be considered a success. “We’re extremely pleased with how we sailed,” said Freund. “Even in our worst race we managed to keep our heads and sail our own race. More importantly we know the areas where we’re leaving boat lengths on the racecourse and we’re going to address those issues in our spring training program.”
The second American boat of Andrew Fisher (Greenwich, Conn.) Daniel Evans (Miami, Fla.) and 2-time Paralympic medalist Tom Brown (Northeast Harbor, Maine) finished 11th, and must now have a strong result at the next selection event to close the gap in the race to earn a spot at Rio 2016. The second and final US Sonar selection event will be ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères, France (April 25-May 1, 2016).
Pictured: Andrew Fisher (Greenwich, Conn.) Daniel Evans (Miami, Fla.) and Tom Brown (Northeast Harbor, Maine), US Sailing Team Sperry
Names to Watch:
- Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Brad Kendell (Tampa, Fla.) and Hugh Freund (South Freeport, Maine, pictured), US Sailing Team Sperry: Doerr, Kendell and Freund are returning for their second consecutive Paralympic selection series as a team, though Doerr has been active in adaptive sailing for the past 17 years and is the longest-tenured athlete on the national team. This team is currently leading the Paralympic Sonar selection series.
- Andrew Fisher (Greenwich, Conn.) Daniel Evans (Miami, Fla.) and Tom Brown (Northeast Harbor, Maine), US Sailing Team Sperry: Fisher is a veteran competitor in many keelboat classes, including the J/70 and Swan 42, but this will be his first attempt at Paralympic selection. Brown is a silver (Athens 2004) and bronze (Sydney 2000) Paralympic medalist in the 2.4mR class, and a three-time Paralympian. Evans is an experienced 2.4mR athlete who recently switched to the Sonar.
