Irish pair secure first bronze

In a thrilling end to the Star World Championship at Annapolis, Maryland on Saturday, Mark Mansfield and David O'Brien secured a first for Irish sailing when they took the bronze medal in a fleet of 112 boats. The result came two days after they completed their qualification process and will be nominated to the Olympic Council of Ireland by the Irish Sailing Association this week.

Saturday's reserve day was called into force after racing was postponed due to light winds on Chesapeake Bay the previous day. The pair had been fifth overall earlier in the week but then slipped to ninth after a 30th place used the single discard. In fact, the Irish boat had one of the lowest discards in the fleet.

On the penultimate day, the pair moved into fourth overall thanks to a sixth place but most importantly reached the third qualification target, that of qualifying Ireland for the Olympic organisers' standard for the Star event in Sydney. With one race remaining, second overall was still open on the points board and the way was clear to concentrate on the championship podium.

Mansfield and O'Brien had a good race, scoring a ninth place while also boosting their confidence. In taking the bronze place at the championship they can now be considered against such luminaries as New Zealand's Gavin Brady and Brazil's Torben Grael, the 1996 gold medallist. Mansfield is now set for his third Olympic Games. The 38-year-old has had a string of high-profile wins in recent years but the Star keelboat has remained his most serious ambition. In 1992 he competed at Barcelona with Tom McWilliam crewing and then again in 1996 with David Burrows. In both events, Mansfield's prowess in the Star was clearly evident although the winner's podium has remained a distant goal.

Clear evidence of his natural talent was again present in the last 12 months when he teamed up the Irish Times sailing correspondent and Afloat Magazine publisher David O'Brien. O'Brien (34) won the 1995 Fireball European and World titles with John Lavery at the National YC and was subsequently one of the few sailing winners of a Texaco Sportstar award.

In the last 12 months, the Cork/Dublin duo have rocketed up the ISAF World rankings for the Star class and this latest result is sure to put them into the top 10 or 15 sailors when the next list is published. Last summer took care of the national selection criteria though the world championship in September was too early to expect to reach the Sydney organisers' qualification criteria.

Over the last four months, the pair have consistently recorded qualifying-standard results. The pressure builds once again from this Wednesday when the Eurolymp circuit resumes at the SPA regatta in Holland.