August is a big month for ISA academy and development sailors with
training camps onshore and offshore, as well as international
competition in Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Poland, Wales and Canada. This
month sees the 29er Worlds in Pwllhli, Wales, from 8-14 August; the
Optimist Worlds in Dziwnów, Poland from August 26 – Sep 4; the 420
Junior Europeans in Bulgaria from August 8-15; the 4.7 Youth Worlds
Championships 6-14th August in the Netherlands and a Laser Radial Worlds
in Kingston Canada 14-20 August.
This jam-packed August comes on the back of one of the busiest July’s
in recent memory for ISA Perfomance teams. July saw young Irish sailors
competing across the globe, from Portugal to Japan, and almost came to a
close in spectacular fashion. For a few hours we all believed Ewan
McMahon had become the latest success story from the ISA Pathway in
claiming the u17 European Radial title in Viana do Castelo, Portugal.
However, the wind was taken from our sails a few hours later when a
final race protest meant the title was no longer Ireland bound.
Viana do Castelo also hosted the Radial Youth Europeans, where Aoife
Hopkins was impressive, and Aishling Keller, despite starting slow put
together a great string of results. They finished 9th and 10th
respectively. You didn’t not have to go very far down the leaderboard to
find more Irish female sailors – Nicole Hemeryck and Erica Ruigrok both
finished in the top 20. The future of Irish ladies radial sailing is a
bright one.
The busy period continued in impressive fashion with the Durcan twins
from RCYC competing at the 29er European Championships, which ran from
the 17-21 July in Medemblik, The Netherlands. They were the youngest
qualifiers in GOLD fleet and finished in 25th position.
Next up we had the Optimist Europeans 17-24 July in Pwllhli, Wales,
where we had 5 sailors in the top half, with lots of great individual
race results, which indicates good future potential.
In lake Riva Del Garda, Italy, we had a large representation in the
Topper World Championships which ran from the 17-24 July. For the
majority of the week we had Geoff Power on the podium and he sailed an
excellent regatta. In the end he was just pipped to bronze by one point.
And so, as the busy period drew to a close, all eyes moved to the
other side of the World where we had two 420 teams competing at the
World Championships in Castle Bay Karatsu, Japan from the 17-25 July.
Douglas Elmes and Colin O’Sullivan recovered well from a pre event
setback where Colin broke his toe – they soldiered on through the event
and made GOLD fleet and finished a respectable 23rd. In the Ladies
division Lizzie and Cara McDowell also made GOLD fleet and finished 19th
overall.