Results tighten as Irish sailors remain strong in final days of ILCA European Championships
by Treasa Cox 15 Mar 12:06 PDT
12-17 March 2023
ILCA European Championships day 4 © Thom Touw Photography / EurILCA
With just two days remaining of the ILCA European Championships being held in Andora, Italy, Irish sailors are in contention in at least two events with top ten results also in sight as conditions improve for the 378 competitors.
Defending European champion Rocco Wright (Howth Yacht Club) in the ILCA 6 event moved into the overall lead thanks to a race win on Wednesday. He holds a two point overall lead from Greek sailor Athanasios Kyfidis and Mattia Cesana of Italy tied for second place.
Wright's lead would be slightly better but for a capsize in the final race of the day when he placed eighth, his worst result of the series so far which he discards. Nevertheless, his fourth day of competition still counted another race win and all top ten results to date.
There was a further strong showing for Fiachra McDonnell (Royal St. George Yacht Club) who had a very consistent day with a fifth, sixth and third places that shift him back up the ranks to sixth overall.
Meanwhile, the ILCA 6 class is the senior level event for the women's competition where Eve McMahon (Howth YC) improved from 19th to 15th overall thanks to sixth and third places as well as a 12th as her event moves into Gold fleet finals racing from Thursday.
"Eve had a solid day with good improvements from training in terms of boatspeed," said Rory Fitzpatrick, Irish Sailing’s Head Coach. "She goes much better at the top of the fleet when she gets up there now."
In the ILCA 7 event for senior men, top ranked world sailor Finn Lynch had a setback before the day's first race began when gear failure struck his new boat. The device that stops the centreboard from popping up failed and a repair at sea was needed. He couldn't compete and incurred maximum points which he discarded.
A 19th place followed with the repair in place which dropped him to ninth place overall in his Gold fleet.
"We had quite nice wind from 15 to 22 knots," commented Vasilij Zbogar, Irish Sailing's Laser Coach. "Unfortunately Finn had gear failure before the first race but everything is still open."
Racing across all fleets continues with the final for the coming two days.
To follow the competition and results please visit 2023-senior.eurilca-europeans.org