Finn Lynch Leads Irish Sailing Medal Chances into Penultimate Day in Mallorca
After a breezy fourth day of racing for the Princess Sofia Trophy in Mallorca, Thursday 3rd April, Ireland's Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) improved his overnight standing to fourth overall in the men's one-person dinghy.
The Carlow sailor showed consistent form over the two races of the day, scoring a 12th and a ninth. He is now one point off third overall once again though the class continues to be dominated by Britain's Michael Beckett who is on the cusp of securing Gold on Friday.
Lynch's team-mate Ewan McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) looked set to match form as he has been for most of the week when he scored an eleventh in the morning race, beating his country-mate for the fourth time in as many days.
But a 23rd place in the afternoon had to be counted as he had already used his worst race discard on Wednesday and he remains in 12th place overall. This is still within reach of the top ten by Friday's conclusion to the fleet series.
"It was exciting to see great improvements in Finn and Ewans’ acceleration off the start-line today; that's something we've been putting a lot of work into," commented Irish Sailing coach Ben Walkemeyer. "They have been using their downwind speeds to put them back into consistent positions, in Finn's case in both races and for Ewan in the first race in particular."
In the women's one-person dinghy, Eve McMahon (Howth YC) regained her form after Wednesday's Black Flag disqualification when she placed ninth and 12th places for the day and now lies 15th overall in her Gold fleet event.
"Eve did a very solid day so we're quite happy. She is improving day by day, race by race," said McMahon's coach Vasilij Zbogar. "We have two more races and we'll still push - the boats are getting closer (on points) so we'll try and get into the medal race and if we manage two solid races we have a chance."
Across the bay of Palma close to the port of S'Arenal, Olympians Robert Dickson (Howth YC) and Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) slipped back to 17th overall as they were unable to break inside the top ten for any of their three races. With three more races remaining on the final day and 15 points to the top ten, a place in the medal race could still be open but needs a leap in form.
"It's definitely achievable in three races tomorrow so that's what we're going to try and do," commented Robert Dickson after racing. "We had a couple of bad starts today and we haven't been capitalising on our strategy this week. There'll be different winds tomorrow so we'll see what we can do.”
Gold fleet racing concludes for all events on Friday and the final standings will see the top ten competitors in each event proceed to Saturday's short medal race final to decide the podium places.