Strong start from Dickson Waddilove at Paris 2024
Ireland's Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove started their second Olympic Games as they did their first in Tokyo three years ago with a race win on their opening day in Marseille in the Men's skiff event.
The Dublin pair were ninth in the first race but then scored a fourth with both races sailed in very light winds. After a move to a different course for the third race of the day, the breeze picked up and Dickson and Waddilove led for the entire race.
The last race win put them into second place overnight with a further three days of fleet racing to sail.
Given the light wind forecast for Monday, Marseille is certain to provide further challenges but all the top crews have had mixed first day results.
"Probably three firsts would have been nice," commented Waddilove when asked if a better opening day could be scripted. "But it was very tricky - the first two races - so we're really happy to come away with the results we just did."
With the light winds, crew weight is a big part of planning in the days leading up to the start.
"There's been a bit of discussion about weight in general - we could get anything here so we're just running an average weight for this regatta," said Dickson. "We did see the forecast from seven days out that we thought it was going to be light. So we've tried not to eat too much in the buffet!"
Now that the event is fully underway, all the advance preparation and training at the venue that the Irish Sailing squad has undertaken here is being put to the test.
"We expected a bit more breeze, you see the Mistral (wind) come in quite a lot here, which is a very, very heavy wind, but in the lead up we prepare for everything, so we're surprised not to see as much wind but we're ready for it," said Waddilove.
Meanwhile, the sailors were at sea for six hours under intense sunshine, temperatures in the mid 30's and high humidity throughout so are looking forward to resting up ahead of day two.
"We've also been playing Petanque downstairs in the Olympic village, which is a great game to take your mind off Sailing" said Dickson.
Racing continues for the Men's skiff event for the coming days ahead of the medal race on Thursday. The conclusion of the Men's skiff is also the opening day of racing in both the Men's Dinghy featuring Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) and Women's Dinghy where Eve McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) will make her Olympic debut.
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