Irish hopes of landing one of the Olympic country spots at the 2021 ILCA Vilamoura European Continental qualifier for the Olympic single-handed dinghy men faded considerably following disappointing results on day three of the competition.
Sailed in 18 to 20 knot south-westerlies the best Irish result of the day's two races was a 14th by leading contender Finn Lynch (NYC) but he followed that up with a 23rd to drop him back to 34th overall and 8th of those countries still seeking Olympic qualification. Next best of the Irish, Ewan McMahon (HYC) is 45th (24,18), while Liam Glynn of Ballyholme is 60th following a 33rd and 43rd. Royal St George teammates Tom Higgins (45, 55) and Hugo Kennedy (59, 60) now lie in 106th and 123rd respectively.
With only two country places available, the Irish challenge has a mountain to climb to catch up with second-placed the Netherlands, some 37 points ahead. However, there has been some movement amongst the leading nations with Spain moving up three places to take over the top spot. Six races are scheduled over the next three days.
See Finn Lynch in action on the event video below, scrub to 2.49 on the timeline
See Afloat's country qualification table below for the latest positions
Laser and Star legend Robert Scheidt (BRA) is still challenging strongly in third place overall, just one point behind Croatia's Filip Jurisic and Michael Beckett (GBR)
ILCA Laser Men Country Qualification Table after Day 3
Country | Points Day 2 | Pos after day 2 | Pts Day 3 | Pos after day 3 |
ESP | 21 | 4 | 27 | 1 |
NED | 16 | 1 | 39 | 2 |
SUI | 27 | 5 | 44 | 3 |
BEL | 18 | 2 | 56 | 4 |
ITA | 18 | 3 | 56 | 5 |
MNE | 40 | 8 | 63 | 6 |
POR | 43 | 9 | 73 | 7 |
IRL | 38 | 6 | 76 | 8 |
GRE | 39 | 7 | 81 | 9 |
POL | 51 | 10 | 112 | 10 |
TUR | 60 | 11 | 114 | 11 |
DEN | 93 | 12 | 148 | 12 |
LTU | 95 | 13 | 181 | 13 |
CZE | 126 | 16 | 185 | 14 |
ISR | 112 | 14 | 198 | 15 |
UKR | 115 | 15 | 210 | 16 |
Racing continues tomorrow. Full results here