Irish woman puts down marker for Olympics

A fourth for Baltimore's Maria Coleman and a seventh for Malahide's David Burrows at this week's crucial Sydney Harbour Regatta demonstrated why the pair are Irish Sports Council carded athletes and leading hopes for a sailing medal in Sydney in nine months' time.

In a virtual re-run of September's pre-Olympic regatta, Coleman put paid to most of the starting problems that dogged her three months ago, when she still managed to finish sixth. Indeed, she has not finished lower than 10th in any of her last 22 races. She actually finished joint third in the 28-boat fleet this week, but lost out in the tie-break to Sarah Blanck of the host nation. Coleman gives much of the credit for her improvement to a training schedule set up by Giles Worthington of the National Coaching and Training Centre, who attended the Sydney regatta. The result confirm's Coleman as a World Class two athlete under the carding scheme for 2000.

Coleman will compete next at the World Championships in January in Brazil. Her best results at the World Championships so far were eighth in 1997 and 10th this year. Team manager Bill O'Hara predicts a top-five placing for her next month, but others in sailing team management are suggesting she will win a medal.

In the men's single-handed class David Burrows, the convincing winner of a three-way Irish Finn trial in June, returned to the circuit taking seventh overall from a fleet of 25 boats, a further improvement on his 11th overall at the pre-Olympic regatta.

Other Irish squad members had mixed performances in Sydney harbour this week, with Laser single-hander Jon Lasenby and 470 men's pairing Tom Fitzpatrick and David McHugh facing an uphill struggle for selection over the next six months. The Star keelboat helmed by the Royal Cork's Mark Mansfield and crewed by your correspondent has opted for an American-based build-up to the Games and did not attend Sydney.

In the French Antilles, off Martinique, Irish Dragon champion Simon Brien, in 14th place, leads a nine-boat Irish team after four races in the 78-boat Dragon World Championship. Brien, from Belfast Lough is followed by Dun Laoghaire clubmates Michael Cotter in 20th and Robin Hennessy in 23rd place. At home, in one of the first moves to capitalise on the £1 million extension to its clubhouse platform, the National Yacht Club has announced that it will stage the Flying Fifteen World Championships in Dun Laoghaire in 2003, though no specific date for the two-week regatta has been agreed.

A Singapore builder has been appointed for the 3.6-metre Zzap youth dinghy, bringing to five the number of builders worldwide. It is designed and promoted by Howth's David Harte and Garrett Connolly.

Five teams from Europe, the US and Australia are counting the cost of their failure to become the challenger for the America's Cup in Auckland. The Aloha Challenge from Hawaii, Switzerland's Fast 2000 team, the Spanish Challenge, Young Australia, and the New York Yacht Club's Young America were eliminated.

Six teams remain to contest the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals starting on January 2nd. The winner of the final, beginning on January 15th, will face Team New Zealand in the America's Cup that starts on February 19th.