Ireland’s Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern bounced back up the leaderboard at the Princesa Sofia Regatta, Mallorca, following a gruelling four-race day in breezy conditions.

The London 2012 veterans are tied for first place on points with German and Austrian crews and face a final day of fleet races for the top-10 boats in the their 49er skiff class.

As joint overall leaders of the 25-strong Gold fleet, they started on Monday competing against 70 other boats in the qualification round.

However, the third day of sailing was beset by light winds that only allowed one race of a three-race schedule to be sailed.

The following day saw an extra race sailed to catch-up on the programme while the final may also have a fourth race added.

Meanwhile, in the Silver fleet of the men’s Laser class, the Irish selection trials swung back in favour of veteran Olympian James Espey.

Nineteen-year-old Finn Lynch has proven to be a credible challenger but ended his opening race in an uncharacteristic 37th place before going on to finish 14th in the second race of the day.

Fionn Lyden, who is also hunting for the Rio Olympics 2016 berth, sailed well and at one stage all three Irish boats were within a few places of one another.

The trials are certain to continue well into the final event at the Laser World Championships in Mexico in May.