Hannah Stodel claimed a silver medal in the first World Cup event of the year.

The West Mersea sailor, along with John Robertson and Stephen Thomas, was competing in the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami last week.

The team’s aim was to medal in the competition to kick-start their preparations for the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.

Competing in the Sonar class the trio recovered from a bad start to secure the silver medal.

They had to deal with light winds during the event that saw race cancellations and led to the last day of racing on Friday cancelled with the British crew sitting in second place.

In the first race, Stodel, Robertson and Thomas were OCS but then came back to grab a fifth and third place to give themselves a chance.

Then a brilliant day’s racing on Thursday saw the team grab two first places to put them in second place.

And with the cancellation of the last day’s racing they secured the silver medal behind the French team of Bruno Jourdren, Eric Flageul and Nicolas Vimont Vicary.

Stodel said: “It wasn’t the best way to win a medal, but it was better than lottery racing, but we’re pleased anyway.

“The aim was to come away with a medal so we’re pretty chuffed."

For the full story see Monday's Gazette.