After a thirty minute delay sailing got underway for Ireland’s Peter O’Leary and David Burrows in the Star class in Weymouth.
Sailing was very close in the first leg but Germany rounded the first mark of the course in first place followed by Croatia and Norway. Ireland was in 14th place. On the second upwind leg there was an upheavel in the fleet with France moving in to pole position followed by Ireland in 2nd place, the position both countries held to the finish line.
The reverse upheavel occurred in the second race of the day which saw Ireland lead for the first half only to be caught by current Olympic champions Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson (GBR) and the World Champions Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada. GBR and BRA battled it out to the finish line with BRA claiming victory meanwhile O’Leary and Burrows slipped down the fleet to finish in 6th place which leaves them in 2nd place overall overnight with 8 points.
The leader is Scheidt/Prada with 5 points and two countries Poland and Norway are in joint third with 12 points. GBR has 13 points. (All results are provisional at time of issue) Commenting on today’s performance ISA Olympic Performance Director stated ‘ This is a good start to the event. A solid performance by Peter and David in testing conditions in a hugely competitive fleet. It is very early days but great to see that the guys have settled down quickly.’
Racing continues tomorrow for the Star class with 2 races starting at 1405. The medal race will be held on 05 August. Competition at the Games starts for 3 other Irish sailing campaigns tomorrow with Ryan Seaton & Matt McGovern in the 49er, James Espey in the Laser and Annalise Murphy in the Laser Radial class. Sailing actions starts at 12 noon.
