Sailing:Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern kept up their fine showing in the 49er class at the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Perth to earn a place in tomorrow's medal race.
Temperatures hit 29 degrees in Fremantle and it certainly heated up for the Irish pair, who qualified for the London Olympics earlier this week.
They started the day in 12th place and after the first two races, where they finished 15th and 10th in the 67 boat fleet, they were in 10th position.
As only the top 10 boats qualify for the medal race, the team was aware that they had to finish in the top 10 in the third race to guarantee their place. The sea breeze came in as they came in sixth to leave them eighth overall.
“This is a fantastic achievement for Matt and Ryan and a personal best,” said Irish Sailing Association performance director James O’Callaghan. “Their hard work and training has paid off and they deserve to be in the medal race tomorrow. It will be an interesting race and the pressure will be on.”
Luck was not on the side of the Irish on the men’s Laser course as James Espey was black flagged in the second race before finishing as the 38th nation. Only the top 35 nations qualify for London 2012 and Espey will have to wait until the Laser World Championships in Germany in May to see if he makes qualification.
“It is unfortunate that James was black flagged today dashing his hopes of early qualification. Hopefully he will make it in May,” added O’Callaghan. “Overall the Irish team has performed incredibly well at this event and exceeded our objectives by qualifying three classes in the Olympics and two of those classes making the medal races. Many of our athletes have shown their personal bests in Perth,”