Olympic qualifying to be altered

SAILING: The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) has published draft nomination criteria for the 2008 Olympics which will see the Beijing team selected by its committee rather than by trials alone.

In a separate development, the association's performance manager, Garrett Connolly, has announced he is to stand down.

Recommendations for nomination to the 2008 regatta will be made by a new Olympic group, chaired by Colm Barrington.

The decision was made by the group to change selection criteria after first examining the long distance to the light-air Quingdao venue, and the fact that qualification for Olympic places continues as late as April 2008.

The group is also briefed to keep its eye on likely candidates for 2012 in Weymouth, a venue with much more in common with Irish waters than China's Fushan Bay.

The decision to turn away from the entirely results-based selection formula that existed for Atlanta and Sydney has, no doubt, come about, in part, because of the legal wrangle that emerged over keelboat selection in the run-up to Athens.

Those problems consumed association affairs in 2004, and after the under-performance in Athens led to an investigation by the Olympic Council of Ireland into what were seen as poorly-drafted procedures.

The team manager at that time was Connolly, who went on to become the association's performance manager and is now standing down.

"I'd like to think I'm leaving the association in good shape, we've learned a lot and James O'Callaghan will do a good job for Beijing," Connolly said.

Barrington's group will make its recommendations after receiving written recommendations from new Olympic coach James O'Callaghan, but Barrington retains the right to act on or to overrule these recommendations before submitting a team to the ISA board.

"We're abandoning world rankings as a benchmark and setting the tone for sailors for future games," Barrington said yesterday. "We want them to aspire to do well at the Olympics rather than try just to get selected."

The reaction of sailors has been muted to the document that has been published for further consultation, but, ominously perhaps, one crew has already had the proposals vetted by solicitors.

There remains a single case for automatic nomination reserved for any Irish sailor who wins an ISAF World Championship of an Olympic class.

No Irish sailor has won such an event, the closest result being most recently with David Burrows third in the Finn dinghy world championship in Brazil in 2004, and before that Mark Mansfield's third in the Star keelboat worlds in 2000 in Annapolis.

Mansfield (43), has retired from Olympic competition and Burrows (28), who would clearly be a key medal prospect, has given no formal indication whether he will try for a fourth successive Games.

At Howth autumn league, having sailed a faultless series, including four race wins and a second place today, Barrington's Flying Glove takes overall honours with a race to spare tomorrow.

In the newest of the one-design classes, a second race win in the same league last Sunday for Peter and William Lacy in Defiance keeps alive their title chances, as they are level on seven points with Dan O'Grady's Gelert, who also has two race wins.

In offshore news, the dates for the BMW Round Ireland race from Wicklow have been moved to Saturday, July 1st, to accommodate other changes in the international calendar.

In team racing news, 156 competitors gather at the University of Limerick tomorrow for the western intervarsity championships, making the largest college event.

The 156 sailors represent 26 college teams spread over three fleets.The event will be sailed on Lough Derg in Firefly dinghies, and the organisers are hoping to rattle off in excess of 60 races in Saturday's round-robin leagues.