Bowman makes Europe top 10

IRELAND's two leading Olympic sailors ended their campaigns yesterday after a single race off Savannah. Aisling Bowman had a ninth in her final race to leave her 10th overall after the 11 race series, while Mark Lyttle narrowly missed a top 10 overall result after he had an 18th, his worst result of the event after two discarded premature starts. He finished 14th.

In the Laser, Lyttle opted for safety after a chaotic start and went for the pin end of the line with three others, leaving the bulk of the fleet to fight among themselves at the committee boat end. Once clearly away, Lyttle was with the leaders at the windward mark and looking good to finish at the head of the fleet. Lyttle dropped back the field to 28th overall after a windshift, but managed to battle back to 18th at the finish.

Bowman, in the Europe class, made a good start to reach the weather mark in fourth place, but was put under considerable pressure from former training partner Shirley Robertson of Britain, who was battling for bronze.

At the finish, Denmark's Kristine Roug ended her 10 day domination of the 28 boat fleet by finishing fifth, a safe enough result to win her gold.