As Marseille’s fickle weather gods finally consented to permit racing to recommence off the Roucas Blanc Marina, Finn Lynch sailed out for his men’s one-person dinghy medal race final.
As he had freely admitted earlier in the week the fleet series had not gone to plan for him, though his disappointment belied the fact that in just two of the eight races sailed he was placed in the mid-20s.
Yet, even in a high-scoring regatta where all the top sailors incurred weighty points, those two results were what he was looking to counteract as his form returned on Sunday going into Monday’s final races.
And then the wind deserted the Bay of Marseille.
Ciara Mageean: ‘I just felt numb. It wasn’t even sadness, it was just emptiness’
Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year: Celebrity ‘manifesting’ influences 2024 choice
Sonia O’Sullivan: A jog down Olympic memory lane shows how far Irish athletes have come
Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn retires from competitive breaking after Olympic upset
Nevertheless, Lynch had reached the qualification criteria for the medal race final and while he could at best only finish seventh or eighth overall, finishing his second Olympic appearance on a high with his best individual race score became his new goal.
All set for Tuesday’s medal race final and ... the wind disappeared, again.
On Wednesday’s reserve day and after a delay to let a storm pass to the south, the men’s medal race finally got under way with a perfect start by Lynch, who soon worked his way into second place. Then the Hungarian leader Jonathan Vadnai managed to capsize and the Irish sailor took the lead halfway lead through the short race.
Suddenly, the wind shifted direction 40 degrees and the race committee decided it was unfair to continue so they abandoned it.
In the resailed race that followed Lynch got a clean start but could not find a passing lane to the front and ended in eighth place and his 10th overall position was unchanged.
“I would have liked to have got the last two fleet races in on Monday, my form had come around so I could have closed the 20-point gap more and been in with a chance at the medals,” he said after racing. “It was a cool experience to lead the medal race until they abandoned it after there was a 40 degree wind shift.”
