Lynch secures Olympic berth for Ireland on winning weekend for Irish sailors
In a nerve-wracking conclusion to the Gold fleet series in the Men's single-handed event at the Allianz Sailing World Championships, Finn Lynch has secured a place for Ireland at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
But qualifying for the Olympics was not the only thing on this Saturdays Agenda, our performance pathway sailors had to match this success with winning gold medals of their own!
Lynch sailed out into the final two races for his event needing only to deliver two safe results to maintain or improve on 14th place by nation. A total of 16 countries have qualified for the Men and Women's single-handed events this week.
While the Carlow sailor placed 19th in the first race of the day, he was unable to break into the leading group and placed 38th in the last of the ten race series.
After crossing the finishing-line, he sailed ashore under the impression that he had missed qualification. Just to be met by Mother Grainne Adams and Irish Sailing Performance Director James O'Callaghan to deliver him the good news that he managed to place 15th by nation and 23rd overall.
Elated with the outcome, he described qualifying Ireland for Paris 2024 as a "monkey off my back" and will now focus fully on preparations for the Olympics and selection for the national squad.
"It is difficult to express the significance of Finn's result but he can now add nation qualifying to his many achievements to date," commented James O'Callaghan, Irish Sailing's Performance Director. "As our senior athlete in the squad, he motivates and inspires our up and coming athletes by his leadership and perseverance."
Meanwhile, at the 29er European Championships in Stockholm, Ben O'Shaughnessy and Ethan Spain (National Yacht Club and Royal Cork YC) have taken Gold and the overall title. Lucia Cullen and Alana Twomey (Royal St. George Yacht Club and Royal Cork YC) placed tenth overall in the 173-boat event and are the top female team.