ISAF World Sailing Championships: Cascais, Portugal, July 3 to 13, 2007
ISAF WORLD SAILING CHAMPIONSHIPS: Cascais, Portugal, July 3 to 13, 2007.
Eleventh and Final Competition Day: July 12
470s and 49er complete competition programme for Ireland
Two Olympic qualifying places secured by Ireland in Finn and 470
470
Ger Owens and Phil Lawton took to the water for their final race knowing that they had secured the 21st and final Olympic qualifying spot in the 470 class. In their tenth and final race they finished 9th, to finish 40 th overall.
At the start of the silver series 9 nations were in contention for the crucial Olympic spot. The Irish crew were lying 4 th nation, 8 points behind Belgium. However, Owens and Lawton over the next four races finished 5th, 10th, 6th and 4th , lifting them 30 points clear of their nearest Olympic rivals and secure in the final qualifying place.
The Mac Colgلin brothers, Tuathal and Dualtach, from the ISA Academy, finished 11th in their 10th and final race to complete their first senior World Championships in 101 st place.
Australia (Nathan Wilmot & Malcolm Page) took gold, Holland (Sven & Kalle Coster) silver and Israel (Gideon Kliger and Udi Gal) bronze in the 470 class.
49er
Russell and Matt McGovern are representing Ireland in the 49er class. They qualified to compete in silver fleet, with high finishes of 8 th and 5th in races 11 & 12 yesterday.
Their final and 13th race was today and the finished 19th, to leave them 40th overall.
Steve Morrison and Ben Rhodes of Greta Britain won the gold medal, followed by Dell Karth and Leopold Resch of Austria in Silver and Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin of Australia in bronze.
James O'Callaghan, ISA Performance Director: "We had a target of two qualifying boats for the Olympics and we always felt that the best chances were with the Finn and the 470. That is how it worked out and a lot of credit goes to Ger Owens & Phil Lawton and Tim Goodbody for delivering the top quality performances required.
'Prof' O'Connell and Ben Cooke were close and face a very tough qualifying competition in Miami next April. We weren't close in the other classes and, although they are generally campaigning for 2012, there is a lot of work to be done to make the boats competitive at the standard required for Olympic qualification".
Further information from:
Bernadette Fox, 087-956 9012
Paul McDermott 087-648 6295