Optimist : Daire Cournane beats all comers in Helsinki!
Daire Cournane continued his successful season by winning the Helsinki Regatta last weekend from a fleet of 100 other sailors from Finland, Germany, Russia and Denmark. He scored an impressive two bullets and two 4ths to take the title. The complete results are available here. This was all the more remarkable because Daire is still a Junior (under 12). Daire has already won the four Junior Irish regional championships, hardly losing a race.
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Isaf youth worlds
Irish Team Results: 420 Result Boys Cian O’Regan and Scott Flanigan 21st from 36 Laser Radial Results Boys Matthew O’Dowd 9th from 50 Full results: |
In
a week that was plagued by light winds organisers struggled
to complete the full schedule of racing. However, as Irish team
leader Ross Killian pointed out “all the races we did sail were
fair races” really that is all you can ask of a race committee.
Matt O’Dowd finished a highly respectable 9th overall in the
50 boat Laser Radial Fleet. As with the rest of his competitors
he had some high scores which put pay to any hopes of a podium
finish. His undoubted talent shown through mid regatta when
he posted two top 3 finishes which gave him the platform to
aim for a top 10 overall finish. This is his last year as a
Youth and he now faces the challenge of Olympic class racing.
Without doubt the experience of the Youth Worlds will prove
beneficial. The 420 sailors never really got into their stride
and the good form shone at Kiel was not replicated. However,
it would be a short sighted view to write these pairings off
just yet. If anything they have proved they are fighters. After
missing their objective last year at the ISAF’s Jane Butler
and Jenny Andreasson bounced back to claim 11th in the class
World Championships. They now have the Junior European championships,
as do Cian O’Regan and Scott Flanigan to demonstrate their skills.
For 15yr old Sophie Murphy the ISAF Youth Worlds was all about
experience. She showed some great potential and with the 2012
Youth Worlds in Dublin being her last year as a Youth the future
is certainly bright for Sophie in the sport. She will be representing
Ireland in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this August.
laser worlds : B-cademy sailor Alan Ruigrok squeezes a gold fleet finish
The radial worlds were held in Largs, Scotland mid July. 10 races is very challenging conditions were sailed for the 218 sailors of the boys fleet and the girls.Freshly returned from the ISafs, Mattie O Dowd paid his lack of consistency and despite having a couple of top scores inside top 5 had to settle with 32nd. He was joined in gold by B-Cademy Alan Ruigrok who despite a relatively "shy" championship found consistency and secured a solid final to take 44th ahead of academy sailor Ross Vaughan. Former B-cademy sailor Rory Lynch could not follow up on the great promisses shown on the spring Ecups and settled with a silver fleet finish (56th). Eoin Keller (28th) had an unlucky run and joined Sean Murphy (19th) in the bronze. full results available here. After a great spring and 3 solid Ecup result, Rory Lynch curently ranks 9th in Europe after 5 events. |
