SAILING:IN A nail-biting conclusion to the Star class fleet racing at the ISAF Saling World Championships off Fremantle yesterday, Peter O'Leary and David Burrows succeeded in qualifying Ireland for the London Olympics, bringing the tally to three disciplines so far in the event that ends tomorrow.
The pair of veteran Olympians opened the day tied for the 11th and final nation place for this round of the qualification stakes with Spain’s Fernando Eschavari and Fernando Rodriguez while a Swiss boat was also a threat.
A solid, front-row start assured the Irish boat of clear air on the first beat as O’Leary and Burrows held a top-10 place throughout the race to place seventh, narrowly missing sixth as Sweden’s Freddie Loof beat them by half a boat-length at the finish. Critically, the Spaniards had their second-worst race of the series and placed 22nd while the Swiss placed 15th.
The stage was set for the 10th and final fleet race of the week as the sea-breeze started to build across the Leighton course off Cottesloe Beach. But a poor start for O’Leary and Burrows was compounded by a port tack approach to the mark and the Spaniards were ahead. The Irish pair attempted to tack underneath Eschavari and Rodriguez just short of the windward mark but may have infringed the other boat’s rights.
Already 10 boats from the rear of the 40-strong class, O’Leary and Burrows opted to take their penalty turns to discharge any potential protest against them.
But they were now three boats from last in the 38-boat fleet with a lap and a half remaining in the race. Charging downwind, they steadily overtook the fleet back-markers starting with Eschavari and Rodriguez who went on to place 22nd. Next up were the Swiss duo of Flavio Marazzi and Enrico de Maria who took 19th for the race.
However, the Irish boat continued to pick-off places and finished in 13th place for the race.
After crossing the finish, O’Leary and Burrows sailed upwind, past the back-markers and counting places carefully to verify their calculations from the standings etched in their minds.
A jump from 15th place overnight to 12th in the fleet narrowly missed a place in today’s medal race final. But their performance made them the ninth country to qualify for London 2012 and air-punches marked the achievement of their main goal for Perth 2011.
“We know ourselves that we’re good enough to medal: we definitely have that potential but sometimes things just don’t go your way,” Burrows said last night. “The main thing is not to lose your head and we’ve proved that today so overall we’re pretty happy.”
The event programme concludes today with fleet races for the 49er skiff where Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern, already qualified from earlier in the week, have three races remaining in the gold fleet to claim a place in tomorrow’s medal race for the class.
And Laser sailor James Espey has two races today to secure qualification for Ireland in this single-handed class and he currently lies inside the standard by three places.
