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Sailing captures silver and bronze
By Linda Luchetti // USOC Media Services // September 24, 2004
The USA's Tom Brown (North East Harbor, Maine) sailed to a silver medal in the 2.4 Metre class while the USA's Sonar class entry of John Ross-Duggan (Newport Beach, Calif.), Brad Johnson (Milwaukee, Wis.) and J.P. Creignou (St. Petersburg, Fla.) captured the bronze medal in the final day of Paralympic Games sailing competition.
With the USA and German boats tied for third place entering the race, Duggan and the Sonar crew needed to either beat Germany or have the Germans finish no higher than ninth place in the final race of the regatta. The USA received the latter when the Germans narrowly edged the U.S. boat at the finish line for ninth place in the race.
The winds of fortune proved as fickle as the breezes over the Saronic Gulf in determining Brown's silver medal in the 2.4 Metre event.
The bronze medalist in the event in Sydney, Brown entered the final race tied with France's Damien Seguin for the fleet lead. But after battling Sequin bow-to-bow to the second marker, Brown dropped to 10th place where he would eventually finish the race. Sequin went on to finish third and claim the gold medal while Thierry Schmitter of the Netherlands earned the bronze medal.
Brown was the only medalist from the 2000 Paralympic Games to repeat in the event after 2000 gold medalist Heiko Kroeger of Germany placed fourth overall and 2000 silver medalist Jens Als Anderson of Denmark placed sixth.
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