SAILING Irish boat secures nation place in Star class for 2008 Olympics

The Coral Reef Yacht Club in Miami was the scene of a great day for Irish sailing. Max Treacy & Anthony Shanks clinched a nation place for Ireland in the Star Class at the 2008 Beijing Games with another excellent performance at the Star World Championships in Miami. In a tense final round they knew they had to post a score to stay in contention and they kept their nerve to finish 26th and seal the spot for Ireland.

But that was only the first piece of good news for Ireland as Peter O'Leary & Stephen Milne, the youngest team at the championships, produced a breakthrough performance to win the final race. In the crucial race of the championship the young Irishmen beat some of the world's finest sailors with a brilliant display that holds great promise for the future. Only for the broken mast in high winds on Tuesday the Cork man and his crew man from Bangor, Co Down, would have had secured a top ten finish in their first senior worlds. Their performance was good enough in its own right to secure Ireland's Olympic spot in an excellent week for the Irish Star sailors.

James O'Callaghan, Performance Director, Irish Sailing Association, speaking from Miami, said "We came to this competitive event hoping to qualify a boat for the Olympics. We knew a lot of great sailors wouldn't be going to Qingdao and it was a huge challenge. It is a great achievement to qualify and an amazing thrill to see world class performances for all crews, but especially from Peter and Stephen who are new to this level of competition".

Ireland will now be represented in 4 of the 11 categories at the 2008 Olympic Games: Star, Finn, Laser Radial and 470. Four years ago the ISA set a target of 4 boats for Beijing and it is a great achievement to reach that goal.

A selection process will now follow to select the crew for the Irish boat in this Star class at the Beijing Olympics.

In the exciting sub-plot of Olympic qualification it was Switzerland, Croatia, Ireland and Austria who secured the spots. The Japanese were the big losers on the day dropping out of contention from 2nd nation spot overnight, thus demonstrating what a volatile and difficult competition this was.  Poland, Italy and Brazil secured the podium spots at the end of exciting, highly competitive and prestigious Star World Championships.

Max Treacy & Anthony Shanks, 26th in last race; 91 points, overall 14th

Peter O'Leary & Stephen Milne, 1st in last race; 97 points, overall 17th  

Maurice 'Prof' O'Connell & Ben Cooke, 51st in last race; 215 points, overall 49th

 More information at    http://www.starworlds2008.com/