SAILING/ISAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:AS THE ISAF Sailing World Championships moves into its second week at Perth, Irish boats are in top-10 positions in two classes that started racing since the weekend.
Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern began their 49er skiff campaign to be one of 14 nations to qualify for London 2012 with a second place in the first race of their flight. The pair went on to score a fourth and a 10th to finish their first day in fifth overall.
The Cork/Dublin pairing of Peter O’Leary and David Burrows in the Star class was a casualty of the thundery conditions off Fremantle in their first race of the day when they sailed the wrong side of a wind-shift in the light conditions.
They recovered ground from the back of the fleet to place 33rd before going on to place third in the second race for ninth overall. The single event discard should come into force today and that will improve their standing.
“We’re not really thinking about the discard too much. Our goal here is to qualify for the Olympics and basically just chip away and take every day as it comes,” Burrows said ashore last night.
Elsewhere, James Espey is competing in the 147-strong Laser men’s single-handed class and lies 56th overall after an 18th and a 22nd place in his flight yesterday.
