Lucas strikes sailing gold for Britain

Great Britain claimed its first ever Paralympic sailing medals, with Helena Lucas the star of the show as she collected gold in the 2.4mR class.

Team GB is the most successful nation in Olympic sailing history but, somewhat surprisingly, their Paralympic counterparts came into London 2012 without a medal since the sport's introduction 12 years ago.

However, that barren spell was ended as, with the final race of the series cancelled due to a lack of wind, medals were awarded on the standings after the opening 10 races.

As a result, Lucas deservedly took gold in the 2.4mR class after a week of domination from the only woman in the 16-boat fleet.

Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell also leave London 2012 with a medal, although bronze is not the colour the four-time world champions had been hoping for.

Great Britain only missed out on the podium in one of the three Paralympic classes after the cancellation of race 11 prevented the Sonar team clawing their way back into medal contention.

John Robertson, Stephen Thomas and Hannah Stodel were third in the standings until they were handed a four-point penalty on Wednesday night for for a rule infringement, which dropped them down to fifth overall.

After a request to re-open the case was rejected overnight, the British team saw a further protest against the international jury fail on Thursday.