Sailing World Cup Final Concludes in Weymouth with No Irish Winners

Four years after the London 2012 Olympic venue at Weymouth & Portland, there was no euphoria for Providence Team Ireland sailors in attendance for the latest Sailing World Cup regatta that ended on Sunday.

 

Men’s skiff sailors Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern reached the medal race final which they dominated all the way to the finish before discovering they had missed a course gate mark. Although their race win wouldn’t have been affected had the correct course been sailed, the error left them seventh overall instead of a likely fifth place.

 

The pair have one further regatta at Kiel Week in Germany later this month before final preparations begin for their second Olympic appearance at Rio 2016 in August.

 

London 2012 veteran Annalise Murphy, Ireland’s most successful sailing athlete in the last 30 years had one of her most disappointing results of the season when she placed 34th in the 39-strong Laser Radial fleet and one place behind her unsuccessful challenger for Rio 2016, Howth’s Aoife Hopkins who has her sights set on Tokyo 2020.

 

Murphy has been concentrating on preparations for her second appearance at the games at the Rio venue which offers starkly different conditions to four years ago when she narrowly missed a podium result.

 

Andrea Brewster and Saskia Tidey in the women’s skiff event failed to get a handle on the light airs last week and placed last in the 49erFX event.

 

Men’s single-hander Finn Lynch, the youngest ever Irish helm to be selected for Team Ireland did not take part in the regatta due to training-camp commitments in Croatia.

 

“Our results from Weymouth are far from ideal” commented James O’Callaghan, ISA Performance Director.  “We have two months to focus on the things we can improve before starting the Olympic regatta in Rio."

 

The first race in the Rio 2016 regatta begins on Monday 8th August when Murphy and Lynch begin their respective events.

 

Irish Sailing Association