Latest Report - Wednesday 5th May 2004 - 99 days to go

Just 99 days now to the opening ceremony and there are times when I'd like some physicist to explain again to me how it is that time doesn't actually speed up as big occasions approach.

Since early March we've had our Star trials conclude at Gaeta, Italy, our 49er's qualify at Athens and Hyeres grade 1 regatta in France. The rest of the squad continue working away towards August and their 'dates with destiny'.

Lets start with the Stars. In the end you could conclude it wasn't much of a contest. Mark and Killian were solid, smart and effective over the three regatta trial series. Max and Anthony showed glimpses of just what they are capable of but winning in sailing is about consistency and they weren't consistent.

Before looking forward to Athens though just a few words on Max and Anthony's campaign. With some super support, particularly from Johnny Ross Murphy these guys really came a long way in a short time. 11th and 14th in the two most recent World Championships is pretty good. The 14th (at Gaeta) was achieved with a broken rig in one of the six race series. After one third of the event they were lying 4th, on equal points with the boat in 2nd place. That's what I mean by glimpses of real quality. There is no doubt in my mind that their experience of the past two years, and in particular their experience in the trials will stand to them. I don't believe May 2004 is the end of this team on the Olympic circuit, neither do I think we've seen the best of them yet.

So what of Mark and Killian? For Mark it's now a fourth Olympics, no mean record by any stretch. There really isn't any question over his ability, that's been proven. On his day he is capable of beating anyone in that fleet and just look at the fleet. Ex Finn champions like Percy, Loof & Rohart, long-term Star sailors, and household names like Grael, Bromby, Beashel and Cayard with a few newer names like Neelman and Marazzi in there for good measure. It's a real tough class to call and for sure, just like in Sydney 2000, we will go into the event with a chance. Maurice (Prof) O'Connell as coach has key role to play. He knows the class now, knows the guys, understands what makes them tick and is a solid reassuring presence behind the campaign. I like to hope that going into this Olympics as an established team of three might just be the difference that can help us get the star into top gear early in the event. A good start and it'll be all to play for.

Ireland will have its first 49er at the Olympics this year thanks to Tom Fitzpatrick and Fraser Brown's qualification result in the recent class Worlds. Tom and Fraser took the third of five nation slots left with an 22nd overall at the Athens Worlds, sailing on water just a couple of kilometres south of the Olympic venue. Backed at their worlds by Ian Barker, himself a current 49er medallist, and with physio support at the event from Anne Blaney, the team did enough and had their qualification secured by making the gold fleet at the half way stage of the event. How far can they go is anyone's guess.

This is only the second Olympics in which the 49er will compete. It's still a relatively new class. Some countries have considerable depth as can be seen by qualification going as deep as the silver fleet at the worlds. There will only be 20 boats at Athens, but of those twenty, at least six have been performing at the very top of World and European fleets for a while now and will start as favourites. Having said that, as I've noted before, I don't think that on their day Tom and Fraser have a huge jump to make it into the top ten of the Olympic fleet. They finished 16th nation in the 2003 Worlds and 15th Nation at the recent worlds. That's five Olympic places to the top ten, not many, but by no means easy. The trick will be making sure that we have everything covered to make sure it is their day.

Take a look down the results at the 49er Worlds and in the bronze fleet you'll find Russell and Matt McGovern of Ballyholme in 72nd overall. Making the 2004 worlds your first real international event is a brave move but its positive for us to see young guys in the pipeline especially in this class, which is bound to be around for a long time. Russ and Matt took delivery of their first 49er last November. Their performance shows just how much a bit of dedication and hard work can do in a short space of time, especially in the 49er.

Elsewhere SOFV at Hyeres (grade 1) wasn't exactly a huge success for us. It's an event we have tended not to do well at in recent years and I'm not sure why this is.

Maria was laid low by some kind of bug in the weeks coming up to the event and probably shouldn't have sailed at all. Maria is tough, totally dedicated and always wants to work hard so it was absolutely par for the course that she would push herself. Hopefully she can take some time to regroup and recover fully now.

Ger and Ross, sailing their old 470 hull had a poor start to the event, just missed the gold fleet cut-off and really weren't in it from there.

For Aaron O'Grady it was a final trainer for the upcoming Finn Europeans at La Rochelle, where he will make one final effort to close the selection gap on David Burrows.

Finally for our lasers this was an important event in terms of Olympic selection. It was the last event before the all- important final qualifier starting next week in Turkey.
Rory Fitzpatrick from the RIYC, who currently leads our ranking selection procedure, had for him what can only be described as a nightmare event sailing out the final stages in the emerald fleet, with Gavan Jones and Roger Craig fighting it out in the silver. By no means spectacular although Roger's continual, if belated, improvement is really positive. However, I will look at what is going on among our lasers in my next update, by which time, hopefully, we will have qualified the class and nominated whichever of our squad leads the world rankings after Spa regatta at the end of the month.

To recap then, we have now qualified and nominated as follows:
Europe - Maria Coleman
470m - Ger Owens and Ross Killian
Star - Mark Mansfield and Killian Collins
49er - Tom Fitzpatrick and Fraser Brown

We've qualified in the Finn class and will nominate the highest ranked competitor at the end of May ranking review. David Burrows currently leads from Aaron O'Grady and Youen Jacob.

We have three boats competing on the 10th May at the 2004 Laser worlds at which we need to qualify the nation and again the highest ranked competitor at the end May review will be nominated to the Olympic Council of Ireland for selection. Rory Fitzpatrick currently leads from Gavan Jones with Roger Craig some way back in third place, all academic if we fail to qualify the nation.

And on one more positive note, in the build up to September's Paralympics, Ireland narrowly missed out on qualification in the 2.4M in the World Championship last year. The IFDS have since found themselves in a position to offer Ireland a place at the Paralympic Games on the basis of Feargal Kinsella's results that left Ireland next in line for qualification. The ISA have nominated Feargal Kinsella to the PCI for selection to the Irish Paralympic Team. So Feargal, supported by his long time coach Gillian Guinness, will start along with our Sonar in September.

	MORC USA	European Barcelona	Worlds Italy
STAR CLASS
Mark Mansfield & Killian Collins	23	8	10
Max Treacy & Anthony Shanks	42	22	13
	Palma	Hyeres
Europe
Maria Coleman	31	44
Finn
David Burrows	10
Aaron O'Grady		35
Youen Jacob
470M
Ger Owen & Ross Killian	28	60
Laser
Rory Fitzpatrick		123
Gavan Jones	42	80
Roger Craig		59
49er	Worlds
Tom Fitzpatrick & Fraser Brown	22	Gold Fleet
Russell & Matt McGovern	18	Bronze Fleet

Garrett Connolly
ISA Olympic Performance Manager

The 470 Olympic Campaign update.

(posted 31/12/2003)

Gerbil and Ross Qualify for the Olympics!

The Harbour Company is proud to sponsor local sailors Gerbil Owens and Ross Killian who compete in the 470 class. An excellent performance in Cadiz in September assured them of qualifications for the Olympic Games in Athens next year. They are among the first Irish athletes to qualify

The pair have now embarked on their winter training programme which will see them head south for several months. They started in Brisbane on the 29th November and raced there until the 3rd December. Next up is the Sydney International Regatta from the 18th to the 22nd December. Following that they are off to Melbourne for the Pre Sail Melbourne Regatta from the 3rd to the 9th January and after that on to the Sail Melbourne Regatta, the only Grade one event in the Southern Hemisphere. Finally, they will take part in the Australian 470 National Championship from the 29th to the 25th January and then back home on the 1st February with a nice tan and maybe for a short rest! You can check up on their performances in Australia through the ISA website www.sailing.ie.

Additional Information

Olympic Campaign 2004

Olympic Campaign 2003

Athens Report 200 Days To Go

Athens Report 150 Days To Go

 

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