Olympic sailors in 3rd place going in to final day of the Star World Championships in Hyeres, France

Peter O'Leary from Cork and David Burrows from Dublin finished 18th today in the fifth race of the event just one place behind event leaders GBR Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson. This means they are in third place going in to the final day of the regatta tomorrow. Unlike the Olympic format where only the top 10 boats sail in the final medal race - tomorrows race will see the whole fleet line up. The margins are so tights in this Olympic class that anyone in the top 10 could still stand on the podium after tomorrows race.

Looking forward to tomorrows race ISA Performance Director James O'Callaghan stated 'Peter and David will just need to go out and sail their own race as there are too many permutations to start worrying about what other boats will do. The guys have had a fantastic week so far and it is exciting and nail biting to see them so close to a world championship medal'

Meanwhile in Boltenhagen, Germany, James Espey (Ballyholme YC & Royal Ulster YC) finished the Laser World Championships with a personal best of 37th out of the 168 strong fleet. It was a great week for James who also achieved his target of Olympic qualification earlier.

In Zadar, Croatia the 49er duo who came back to form yesterday but still did not make the top 25 for the gold fleet agonizingly missing out by just one place having finished with a 1st, 5th, 4th & 3rd. Today they are 8th in the Silver fleet with one days racing left.

As these World Championships come to an end this week, the other two Olympic hopefuls Gerbil Owens and Scott Flanigan in the 470 and Ross Hamilton in the Finn are preparing for their Olympic qualifying events next week. Also training in Weymouth this week in advance of the Laser Radial World Championships was National Yacht Clubs Annalise Murphy whose event commences in Germany on Monday.