Irish amateurs make waves

SAILING/Dragon World championship:European professionals took gold, silver and bronze in the Aberdeen Dragon World championship yesterday but an Irish amateur team proved its worth by taking four of the top 10 positions in a series cut short by lack of wind.

A year ago Germany's Tommy Müller won the Irish Open Dragon Championship in gale-force winds on Dublin bay.

Yesterday he was the toast of the Royal St George again - but this time for a light-air victory - when he lifted the world championship trophy on the steps of the clubhouse.

A decision was made to abandon at 11am yesterday when Alan Crosbie concluded there was no prospect of breeze by the 2pm deadline.

It reduced the event from eight races and two discards to six and a single discard.

Müller, from Hamburg, and his two crew, Vincent Hoesh and Max Sheibmayr, took the overall lead after race six by a narrow margin of 2.3 points.

As the 68-boat fleet have not raced since Wednesday he earned his first world title ashore yesterday.

Second overall was the Swiss Olympic medallist Uli Libor with Stephan Hellriegel and Frank Butzmann. Third was Britain's Len Jones with Claus Hoj Jensen and Jamie Lea.

Four Irish boats featured in the top 10, with Neil Hegarty, David Williams and Peter Bowring best of them in sixth.

If they had not incurred a protest verdict, which imposed a 20 per cent penalty on them in race two, on Tuesday, the Irish champions would have finished third overall.

Simon Brien's Belfast Lough entry Kin recovered from 22nd to seventh after two teens results scored in races five, and The Royal St George's Andrew Craig was eighth.

Clubmate John Ross Murphy ended the six-race series 10th.

In spite of the fickle conditions the event has been widely acclaimed for its professional organisation, on and off the water.

As part of the championships - with entries from 15 countries - a gala dinner celebrated the first ever staging of the world championships on Irish waters.

It was attended by Prince Frederick of Denmark, also a competitor in the event, who finished 32nd overall.