Season peak event for Ireland's Olympic sailors begins on Monday in Sweden
With the prospect of the Los Angeles Olympic regatta now three years away, Ireland's top sailors for the one-person dinghy event start racing in their final peak event of 2025 in Sweden this weekend from the 11th - 16th August.
Both Eve McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) and Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) are amongst the highest ranked sailors in the world and count several medals between them already for this year's busy schedule.
Also racing will be Ewan McMahon (Howth YC) who is challenging Lynch for Olympic selection and also regularly features inside the top 20 finishers at world class events.
Six days of competition begin on Monday for the men's ILCA7 and women's ILCA6 one person dinghy events to decide their respective European titles. The squad have just completed a three-week training camp at the LA2028 venue after a gruelling programme of competitive regattas.
"Finn and Ewan have been working with the team to programme themselves into this event that should put them at the peak of their performance," commented Ben Walkemeyer, Irish Sailing's ILCA7 coach. "Their goal her would be to hit personal bests for each of them."
The recent training camp was dedicated to improving boatspeed and starting techniques, two crucial factors for determining race outcomes.
"This event gives us an opportunity to combine those two and hopefully put together some outstanding racing."
Marstrand is known as a tricky venue and very complex due to current, choppy waters, current and "cloud sailing" according to Vasilj Zbogar, Irish Sailing's ILCA6 coach who less than a year ago switched from Lynch to Eve McMahon in a new collaboration.
"It's actually been a quite intensive year and this is our last big event," he said. "We're very motivated because every day has been a learning day as this is a new venue for both of us."
The 2025 season has involved a punishing travel schedule with no opportunity to visit the picturesque Swedish coastal village before now.
"Luckily, we pushed a bit to come here earlier and we've had four days of solid training before a storm arrived," said Zbogar who was relishing a further few days of training before racing begins. "We'd like to finish the season with a good result so we're going to push hard - after a good results this year, the bar for her is set high."
Following the European Championships next week, a final event for the Sailing Grand Slam series limited to just the top sailors in the world for each Olympic discipline will be held and used by the Irish Sailing squad as a medal race training opportunity.
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