Light winds continue to frustrate at Santander

Buoyed up by claiming Ireland’s first sailing place in Rio, almost two years in advance of the Olympic Games

, Irish Laser champion James Espey continued his strong performance in day three of the ISAF World Cup at Santander, Northern Spain yesterday.

Light winds continued to frustrate the racing programme where the first batch of country qualifying places are on offer for the Rio 2016 sailing regatta.

In the Men’s Laser class and Women’s Laser Radial class, the Gold fleets only managed to complete one race during the afternoon, but in an effort to keep the programme on schedule the Race Committee kept the sailors on the water into the evening, only to abandon shortly after 6pm local time.

With the Rio berth secure, Ballyholme's Espey benefitted from the lack of pressure again to challenge the leaders throughout the race, being as high as fourth at one stage, ultimately finishing in 10th place to climb 14 places in the overall rankings to 26th in a 147-boat fleet led by Nicholas Heiner of Holland.

Now that Espey has secured Ireland’s spot in style, the domestic focus of the coming 2015 regatta circuit will turn to the Irish trial to decide who will represent Ireland in Rio: Espey or Ireland’s recently crowned under 19 Laser world champion, Finn Lynch, who is racing in the bronze fleet this week.

Murphy outside the cut

On the Laser Radial Gold course with one race in, Annalise Murphy suffered again in the light and shifty conditions to post a 37th place, putting her in 45th overall. Unlike the men’s Laser division, this fleet didn’t enjoy the coincidence of the number of places available being equal to the number of countries qualifying for gold fleet racing.

This means that Murphy, a former European champion, is currently outside the cut mark of 19th by country, and is in a tough battle among the 33 countries that made gold fleet. She lies 28th country but, as she showed in qualifying, posting single digit results in the five remaining races could move her up the rankings prior to the medal race. After five races, the 120-boat fleet is led by China’s Dongshuang Zhang. There was no Irish interest in the 470 or Windsurfing classes that also raced yesterday.

The staggered programme at Santander means a day off for the Lasers and Radials today although the extended light-wind forecast may force organisers to amend the schedule this week.

Irish sailors scheduled for action this afternoon are Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern (49er), Andrea Brewster and Saskia Tidey (49erFx) and Ross Hamilton in the Finn.