Olympic hopes rest with Coleman

The likelihood of sixth overall at this week's crucial Olympic dress rehearsal regatta for Cork's Maria Coleman will be confirmed by tomorrow's final race and underlines her status as Ireland's best Olympic hope since David Wilkins.

Other Irish squad members had mixed performances in Sydney Harbour this week with two of these crews now facing an uphill struggle for selection over the next six months.

The gold medallist from all but one of the 1996 Olympic Games and 31 of the 42 medallists from Atlanta are racing in in Sydney Harbour.

In spite of a solid performance Coleman, who was fourth at the halfway stage had a number of poor starts that forced her to play catch-up in many of her races. She often rounded the first top mark in the bottom third of the fleet and only excellent up-wind shift work in the 15 knot seabreezes put her back into contention.

In the men's single-handed class O'Hara admitted that he had made a poor decision to send David Burrows to Sydney without sufficient time for pre-regatta preparation. Burrows, the convincing winner of a three way Irish Finn trial in June, returned to the circuit placing 11th overall from a fleet of 20 boats. He is likely to move up one place by tomorrow's final race.

Premature starting still haunts Tom Fitzpatrick and David McHugh in the mens men's 470 dinghy. They lie 22nd from a fleet of 29 after discarding an On Course Side (OCS) result. Also in need of a qualification result is Laser sailor Jon Lasenby who is now based full time in Sydney. Meanwhile, at home it is certain that Coleman's campaign inspired at least five junior Royal Cork club mates at last weekend's ISA Junior Helmsmans Championship when Crosshaven's Nicholas O'Leary (13) became the youngest winner of the event.

In Northern Ireland, an interactive CD ROM from coach Trevor Millar has been described as the greatest single development in training for the single handed sailor' by the Olympic Laser Gold medallist and triple World Champion Robert Scheidt. Millar was awarded Coach of the Year in 1988 for his work with the British Laser Team. He founded SailCoach Associates Ltd three years ago and in this short period of time the company has worked with 46 different nations. The LaserCoach CD ROM 2000 costs £39.95. Secure on-line ordering is available on the SailCoach website Site: www.sailcoach.com