Irish sailors in confident form going into Olympic medal race
After four days of consistently holding second place overall in the Men's Skiff fleet series, Ireland's Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) are tonight poised for the short race on Thursday afternoon to decide the podium.
"Today was a really tough day, we had two really hard races, but we managed to bounce back and have a really good last race," Dickson said after racing ended. "But the good thing is we have a good track record in medal races, so we're pretty confident."
The final three races for the Dublin crew were sailed in a mix of conditions that were often difficult to navigate as the results across the 20-boat event displayed.
However, Dickson and Waddilove took a calculated risk in the final race and sailed off to the opposite side of the course from the remainder of the fleet. By the first mark, it was clear that they had made the right choice and they swept down under spinnaker to complete the first lap with a healthy lead.
On the second lap, the pair underestimated the distance to the top mark and that allowed the Croatian team in hot pursuit to close the gap. On the final approach to the finish, the gap had closed with the pursuer having slightly better speed, allowing them to edge over the finishing-line by a tiny margin.
Nevertheless, the Irish crew were ecstatic that they had recovered ground lost during the earlier races in the trickier wind.
They retained their now customary second place and trail leaders Spain by five points with New Zealand in third and the Americans amongst the leading pack, all of whom are capable of securing a podium place in the high-scoring medal race final.
"We're delighted, we came here to try win a medal, and the fact we have a chance tomorrow is just the cherry on top," said Waddilove. "I think at the start of week, if you'd asked us would we be happy going into the medal race in second position with a little bit of a points gap, we definitely would have taken it. So we're thrilled to be in the position we're in."
The medal race final begins at 1.35pm (Irish Summer time) while racing in both the Men's Dinghy featuring Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) and Women's Dinghy where Eve McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) is making her Olympic debut gets underway earlier in the day and continues until next week.