The final day of racing at the ILCA 4/Laser World Championship Pre-Event in Portugal started off with a postponement for 1 hour to allow the thermal breeze to settle.

In the end, the Race Officer managed to get two races in, and when the final points were tallied, the two Cypriot sailors were in the top 2 places.

Sienna Wright of Howth YC finished as the first female sailor and in 10th place overall, which is a super result for the 14-year-old and something she will be hoping to build upon next week once the World’s proper begin.

Daniel O'Connor 13th

Daniel O’Connor of the Royal St George YC finished the regatta in 13th place overall. This was only Daniel’s second international event, having competed in 2021 at the World Championships in Dun Laoghaire in the same boat, so he too will be very pleased with this result.

Krzysztof Ciborowski finished the regatta with one of his better performances in the last race and climbed up to 43rd overall in the 59-boat fleet.

Registration for the World’s opens today and there is a practice race on Sunday before the opening ceremony.

Racing proper starts on Monday and the first 6 races scheduled are the qualifiers that will determine what fleets the boys and girls will sail in. With 278 boys entered and 159 girls it is possible that there will be up 6 fleets of boats so qualifying will be difficult. There are 10 Irish boats entered.

Full list of entries here and the results are here

Howth teen Eve McMahon booked her place to the Youth World Sailing Championships in The Hague in July when she sailed to success at the Irish Youth Sailing Championships on Belfast Lough today. 

The reigning World Youth Champion in the single-handed ILCA6 (formerly the Laser Radial) won her 38-strong event in convincing fashion by winning both final races on Sunday to bring her tally to five race wins on Belfast Lough.

Clubmate Rocco Wright who had been leading the class and a group of six challengers since racing began on Thursday finished second overall.

Rocco Wright Photo: Simon McIlwaine/Wavelength Images

In so doing, both McMahon and Wright reached the standard to be nominated to represent Ireland in The Hague in the girls and boys divisions respectively of the World Sailing event.

Sienna Wright of Howth Yacht Club Photo: Simon McIlwaine/Wavelength Images

There were further celebrations in the Howth YC camp when Sienna Wright, Rocco's younger sister won the ILCA 4 (formerly Laser 4.7) class by a comfortable 13-point margin.