Goodbody and Milton in Dublin Bay showdown

SAILING: Another stormy day on Dublin Bay yesterday saw Ireland's Tim Goodbody retain his overall lead of the Alfa Romeo Sigma European Championship ahead of today's final race.

Winds gusting to 47 knots forced the postponement of race eight, which organisers hope to sail this morning.

The Dun Laoghaire-based White Mischief took second yesterday to Alan Milton's Pepsi, which has been gaining ground all week and now lies second overall, nine points adrift of Goodbody. The stage is set for a showdown this afternoon.

Milton, in turn, has pressure from Kevin Aitken's The White Tub, one point behind in third, and Ben Richard's Lucent. All four must cover each other today, as they are 20 points clear of the fifth placed entry, Ireland's Paddy Varian-skippered Rupert, who had a good day with a fifth place yesterday.

In the Silver fleet, Mark Byrne's and Ted O'Sullivan's Powder Monkey leads, and is 22nd overall in the 46-strong fleet.

Several boats opted not to race yesterday, a decision perhaps justified by reports of at least two man-overboard incidents. Nobody was injured in either case.

Shortly before lunch, principal race officer Jack Roy took the precaution of sending the fleet ashore as the seas were reaching over two metres in height.

Elsewhere in the bay, lifeboats assisted the fleet of Squibs which will be used for next week's Special Olympics regatta as they were being delivered under tow from Howth.

Meanwhile, next Monday's meeting of the Irish Sailing Association's (ISA) board of directors is expected to consider the implications of a report by the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) following a review into the ISA's Star class selection procedure for the Athens 2004 Olympics. Triple Olympian Mark Mansfield complained to the OCI in March that the process to decide between him and Killian Collins against rival contenders Max Treacy with Anthony Shanks was unfair.

The outcome of the investigation is basically to find in favour of Mansfield, and this has been confirmed to the The Irish Times by OCI general secretary Dermot Sherlock.

The procedure which was found to have been the agreed selection process would be based on the ISAF world rankings published immediately after the combined classes world championships to be sailed in Cadiz in September. If one competitor is ranked within the top eight in the world and the other ranked in the top 16, a trials series would be staged in the spring of 2004 to determine Ireland's Star class representative for the Olympics.

However, the ISA will also have to consider other issues identified by the OCI. The report is critical of the management and administration of the ISA and ISA Olympic Group. There was inadequate dissemination of information, which led to uncertainty among the athletes.

The OCI recommends that the parties seek the involvement of the Court of Arbitration for Sport if the dispute continues.

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