Duo lift gloom as Irish struggle

SAILING: Good twin trapezing conditions and a stable southerly breeze made for vintage 49er dinghy racing yesterday afternoon in Athens and Ireland took its place among the front runners - at least in one of the three races - when the North-South partnership of Howth's Tom Fitzpatrick and Portaferry's Fraser Brown finished fourth in race four.

It was a highlight in an otherwise mediocre display that manager Garrett Connolly has so far deemed "an under-achievement" for the Irish crews who sail their last rounds by Saturday. If under-achievement is to be the net result of the Athens regatta, it is unforced errors that are at the root of the team's undoing so far.

Yesterday's disqualification for starting too early in race six effectively shut the door on David's Burrows' Finn medal. It marks the end of a professional two-year campaign that yielded world championship bronze in January but has so far stopped short of anything else this week.

At only five points adrift of ninth overall, with three races left, the 27-year old Malahide sailor still has some work to do to at least equal his Sydney score.

Brooding over missed wind shifts Baltimore's Maria Coleman was in no mood to talk last night about the depth of this week's problems afloat.

The 36-year-old aims to conclude her 2004 campaign - most likely her last - with at least one individual top-10 placing in the 27-boat fleet by Saturday.

She lies 17th overall in the women's single-handed Europe class after posting 18th and 15th in races five and six yesterday.

On other courses the men's 470 pair, Dún Laoghaire's Ger Owens and Ross Killian, are 19th after eight races in a fleet of 27.

Laser rep Rory Fitzpatrick, also of Dún Laoghaire, who has now sailed his sixth race can count his discard and although it has substantially rejigged positions further up the 42-boat fleet it leaves him with only a slight improvement in 34th place.

As these four crews dust themselves off from the Athens experience any remaining medal hopes this week ride with the 49er pairing who still have an extended programme of 12 races still to sail.

For most, however, triple Olympian Mark Mansfield and Killian Collins carry the greatest chance of a top result in the Star keelboat competition when it gets under way on Saturday.