London 2012 Olympics - Irish sailors are 'Genuine Prospects'

by Irish Sailing Association on 15 Jun 2012 London 2012 Olympics - Irish Olympic sailors were back in Dublin yesterday, Thursday 14 June, in advance of their final training camps. The sailors are currently in a rest period following a very successful ISAF World Cup regatta in Weymouth last week at which Gold and Bronze medals were won. The medal haul demonstrates the Irish Sailing Association’s claim that they are 'Genuine Prospects.' This regatta was a very important benchmark for the sailors as it fielded all the Olympic qualified athletes and took place on the Olympic race course.

The team’s achievements at the event were as follows:

Peter O’Leary and David Burrows (Star) - Gold Medal
Annalise Murphy (Radial) - Bronze Medal
Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern (49er) - 7th
Ger Owens and Scott Flanigan (470) - 1st Silver Fleet
James Espey (Laser) - 4th Silver Fleet
John Twomey, Ian Costello and Anthony Hegarty (Sonar) - 12th place

Commenting on the team’s preparations for the Games, ISA Performance Director James O’Callaghan stated 'The performance of the team last week shows that we are on track in our preparations for London 2012. Although it is a huge confidence boost to medal at this stage in preparations, no one is taking anything for granted. The Olympics are a unique event and bring their own unique pressure. Our sailors will continue to prepare in the best way possible and will be spending significant time at the venue'.

One campaign that has a little more time to prepare is the Paralympic Sonar team of John Twomey who will be attending his tenth Paralympics with his crew Ian Costello and Anthony Hegarty. Their event does not start until 01 September so they have most of the season to fine tune their techniques. The Sonar campaign trains out of Kinsale and after a busy early sailing season in Miami, Holland and Weymouth, their training camp will be based in Kinsale which offers similar sailing conditions to Weymouth.

For the next six weeks the campaigns will be predominantly training out of Weymouth.

It is important at this stage of preparations to concentrate on maintaining fitness and wellbeing. The Olympics is a long regatta and everyone needs to be fresh when they start, it is more of a marathon than a sprint.

ISA Performance Director James O’Callaghan added 'We’ve worked closely with the ISC and the Sports Institute to ensure we have the best systems and structures in place. At this stage it is about fine tuning and staying focused on the process. Our preparations received a great boost when Providence Resources came on board as a title sponsor and enabled us to go that extra Irish Sailing Association website