Ireland's Tom Fitzpatrick and David McHugh qualified for the Gold Fleet series at the 470 European Championships in Turkey over the weekend. The Olympic hopefuls for the men's two-handed dinghy for Sydney 2000 finished 11th overall in the qualifying series; all points are now reset to zero for the 12-race finals.
The Dublin pair lead the Irish contingent, which includes Laura Dillon and Kareena Knaggs in their first major event since their college exams.
The Howth crew were lying 15th out of 25 female crews on Saturday. The third Irish boat, that of Gerbil Ownes and Graham Elmes, missed out on selection for the Gold fleet after finishing 30th in the 35-boat main fleet.
Meanwhile, a large Irish squad recorded mixed results at the Laser II European Championships at Abersoch, Wales, which ended on Saturday. Noel Butler and Garth Ablett, sailing 3Comm More Connected, finished 10th overall, the best of the eight Irish boats in the 73-strong fleet.
Although Butler expressed his disappointment at the result, he said the performance of Michael Ferguson and Jeremy Tomalin, who finished as the second junior boat overall, was notable.
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