Mixed opening day for Rob Dickson and Seán Waddilove at 49er World Championships

In a reprise of their Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Ireland’s Rob Dickson and Seán Waddilove stole a solid race win to open their World Championship series in Sardinia on Tuesday.

The Howth and Skerries pairing opted to duck behind the main line of boats starting the race after spotting a gap between the fleet and the committee boat.

Hitting the line exactly on the signal and already at speed, the IRL99 crew “port-tacked” away from the others in clear air as they headed for mark one with a clear lead.

With the advantage of open water ahead, they extended their position over the two laps of the course and scored a memorable first place.

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However, that victory will be sorely needed as motivation over the coming five day.

In the following two races, as the breeze first freshened and then started to fade, spotting the wind shifts against the intensity of the setting sun became challenging.

Two deep results of 25th and 20th followed, leaving them with an uphill climb from which they will have to recover over the coming days.

The worst race discard will likely see them drop the 25th-place finish, but this year’s event is trialling a new Olympic medal race format.

As usual, the top third of the fleet will initially aim to qualify for the gold fleet. From there, the final race of the gold series will be umpired, meaning no rules protests will be held ashore afterwards which would delay results.

The top four boats remaining after that race then qualify for the medal race final. In a major departure from standard competitions until now, the boat that wins the medal race is guaranteed gold. The previous first and second-placed boats would still be guaranteed a medal but would need the final win for the gold.

The new format is a trial before a decision is taken by World Sailing on the matter at its annual congress, which will be held in Dún Laoghaire early next month.

The proposed changes seek to satisfy the International Olympic Committee that the sport can deliver an exciting climax to competitions to address falling television audience numbers.