Sunday 25th Jan 2004 - 200 days to go

The Olympic Year is finally upon us. On the one hand it has often seemed as if it would never arrive, on the other, it seems like only weeks since we were debriefing Sydney 2000.

Sunday the 25th of January is exactly 200 days to the opening ceremony, which will take place in Athens on Friday the 13th of August (not a ceremony for the superstitious!)

Already in 2004 our laser and 470 sailors have raced in Sail Melbourne but it is the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, 26th to 30th of January, which really kicks off the Olympic year.

Miami is important for several of our classes but before previewing MOCR lets just review exactly where we are in regard to our Olympic and Paralympic Teams for Athens.

Ireland has already qualified in Finn, Europe, 470M and Star. Of the two Paralympic classes we have qualified in the Sonar, three-person keelboat. With only one competitive boat in Europe and 470M class, the ISA have already nominated Maria Coleman in the Europe and Ger Owens and Ross Killian in the 470M class to the Olympic Council of Ireland for selection.
Our Finn nominee will be decided by the ISAF World rankings in the class at the end of May and right now its all to play for with Aaron O'Grady holding a slight lead over David Burrows and Youen Jacob of Baltimore a little further back. David has chosen not to compete at Miami, preferring to spend nearly six weeks training on site in Rio de Janeiro for the 2004 Finn World Championships. While MOCR will be a counter in the rankings it is far outweighed as a points gatherer by the Worlds so watch for news from Rio in mid-february when all of our Finn sailors will be looking to perform.
Both of our Star teams achieved nation qualification in their own rights at the 2003 Worlds. Mark Mansfield and Killian Collins will now battle it out with Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks for the nomination, with MOCR as the first of a three regatta trial series. The ISA's Olympic Group have designated MOCR, The 2004 Star Europeans and the 2004 Star Worlds as the three regattas to decide our nominee. All races as well as each overall regatta result will count in the scoring system. A running tally will be maintained on www.sailing.ie for the duration of the trials.

For our 49er team of Tom Fitzpatrick and Fraser Brown MOCR is a chance for them to assess their winter of hard work as they prepare for their final qualification regatta, the 2004 49er Worlds, scheduled for Athens in April. Tom and Fraser have put in a really tough four months since Cadiz last year, watch for their results at MOCR.
Gavan Jones and Rory Fitzpatrick will represent Ireland in the laser class at MOCR where again they are shadowing each other in the ISAF rankings with end of May being the cut-off for selection. Rory holds a small but significant lead right now putting him in pole position for the nomination, however, prior to any nomination, one of our laser sailors will still have to secure a nation slot at the Worlds in Turkey in early May.
In the Sonar paralympic class its now decision time. The class is qualified, the first of two trial regattas has already taken place and it all hinges on the results at MOCR. John Twomey from Kinsale with crew Sean McGrath and Brian O'Mahoney hold a small advantage over Paul McCarthy, John Paul Ryan and Chris Thomas, also from Kinsale. The points table is shown below, together with the scoring system. Again the table will be updated daily on www.sailing.ie throughout the regatta.

Back home and the Irish Sports Council will announce its grant allocations under the International Carding Scheme and the Athens Enhancement Plan next Wednesday the 28th of January. I expect sailing to one of the biggest beneficiaries, if not the biggest beneficiary, of funding among Ireland's Olympic sports. The size of the awards and the success of Sailing in obtaining such funding is a testament firstly to the huge progress, which has been made by the Irish Sports Council (ISC) in the past three years. Secondly though, it's our Athletes who have made it happen. We have five boats in four classes considered 'World Class' under the international carding scheme.
ISC defines world class as top 16 in the World Rankings or the World Championships.
The challenge facing us in 2004 is to move these boats, and others, from being World Class into what we refer to as the 'medal zone'. You will come across references to the 'medal zone' quite a bit as the year progresses but what is the medal zone? The ISA have defined it as ranking in the top 10 and having finished top three in a grade 1 event in the previous twelve months or so. Its not a definition that has been rigorously arrived at but you can be sure that very few medals will be won in Athens from outside the medal zone.
We still have work to do if we are to line up in Athens in 200 days time with four or more boats in the medal zone.

Over the next few months www.sailing.ie will bring you regular updates from the squad, the management and the supporters of our Olympic effort as the countdown to Athens continues. The next in the countdown series will be published with approx 150 days to go just before St Patricks Day. Before then the ISA website will be totally revamped with a busier and more informative High Performance section containing bios, news, links and plenty more info on our Olympic squad plus an archive of all our recent news, views and reports.
During the Olympic Regatta itself ISA will run a results texting service direct from Athens to your mobile phone. Of course there will also be daily reports from management and team as the regatta progresses available on the website.

2004 is a watershed year for the ISA and for the Irish Olympic movement in general. A lot of people have put a lot of effort into Athens preparations. Why not sign up for the ISA e-newsletter and make sure to bookmark www.sailing.ie in your browser so that you can keep up to date with developments.

Garrett Connolly
ISA Olympic Performance Manager

Additional Information

Olympic Campaign 2004

Olympic Campaign 2003

Athens Report 200 Days To Go

Athens Report 150 Days To Go

Athens Report 99 Days To Go

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