Men’s Laser Standard sailor Finn Lynch finished with a personal best in 13th place at the Laser European Championships today. The championships took place in Gdansk, Poland. The Carlow athlete sailed a strong final series which saw him close out the gruelling six-day event in his highest standing of the week.
James O’Callaghan, Irish Sailing Performance Director said “Finn’s result today shows how close we are to the standard required to qualify the nation next year for the Tokyo Olympics. At the same time, with rivals Spain and Italy finishing just ahead and Belgium and Greece just behind, the challenge is clear. It really shows how fine the margins are at this level. There is no doubt the result will give Finn the confidence to keep pushing hard through the winter to improve one more notch”.
Liam Glynn’s result (43rd place) and qualification for the gold fleet sets him up well for the coming season. Ewan McMahon (43rd in the silver fleet) will be disappointed given the fact that he qualified for the gold fleet at the 2019 World Championships. He’s still young at 20 years of age, but it really serves as a reminder of the depth of talent at this level.
In the Women’s Laser Radial, there’s no doubt seasoned campaigner Annalise Murphy will be disappointed with her final position in 27th. There was good news however for the rest of the Laser Radial squad – Aoife Hopkins had a solid performance and finished 32nd, while Eve McMahon (younger sister of Ewan) had a fantastic event – at 16 years old she was by far the youngest in the fleet, and her qualification for the gold fleet and final position in 45th place bodes well.
Meanwhile Irish Sailing’s Academy sailor Tom Higgins finished in 6th in the Men’s Laser Radial. Although he just missed an U21 podium finish, his result is a good indication of the strength of talent coming up the Performance pipeline.
Read the full results here: https://events.pya.org.pl/2020-laser-senior-european-championships-open-european-trophy,e34
