Ireland is on the cusp of two more places at the 2016 Olympic sailing regatta this weekend following a solid performance by both the men's and women's skiff teams off the Spanish coast at yesterday's ISAF World Sailing Championships in Santander.
With no Irish interest in the Laser and Laser Radial races, where Dutch sailors took both gold medals, the focus of Irish attention at the Championships shifted to the impressive performance of both Irish skiff crews.
The 49er crew of Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern, having comfortably made the gold fleet in eighth place, set about the twin goals of securing Rio qualification and making the medal race for the top 10 crews this Sunday. In the hunt With three races completed (and one scheduled) by mid afternoon, placings of 11, nine and six kept them well in the hunt for both targets. However, when the race committee sent the gold fleet back out for one more race yesterday the Belfast pair seized the opportunity to finish second in the day's final race and so move up to sixth overall.
It’s an impressive result that positions the pair, who finished 14th at London 2012, to take their place in Rio. In order to do so they must finish within the top 10 nations. A total of 88 49er teams from 33 nations are competing in Santander.
In the women's skiff, Dun Laoghaire's 49erFX representatives, Andrea Brewster and Saskia Tidey, sailing in yesterday's early finishing yellow fleet, waited agonisingly for the blue fleet to complete their qualifying series to see if their strong finishes of fifth and sixth were enough to get the right side of the fleet split. Tied situation In the end they did it comfortably enough, lying 17th out of the 25 teams that will now sail in the gold fleet for the remainder of the regatta. The newly formed Irish pairing will fight it out with the 14 other nations for one of 10 spots available.
They are in a tied situation, equal on points with a French team that currently occupies the ninth country qualifying slot. Ireland’s cause is helped by the Brazilian team, currently in third place, getting an automatic slot as host nation.
Both skiff medal races are scheduled for Sunday and if two more places are won it surpasses team officials own expectations of three Rio slots at Santander.
Ireland's other representative, Ross Hamilton in the Finn Class, completed two races yesterday and now lies 64th overall, and not in contention.
Unlike previous days the strong morning breeze persisted through the afternoon, allowing organisers to catch up somewhat on the tattered schedule.
Forecasters predict a repeat of the weather pattern for today, stronger winds in the morning moderating throughout the day.
