#santander2014 – Ireland's only medal race crew took ninth in this afternoon's light and shifty 49er medal race at the ISAF World Championships in Santander, northern Spain.The result gives Belfast's Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern eighth overall in the high speed skiff class and, more importantly, country qualification for the Rio Olympics in 2016.
The result is the third country qualification for Ireland at the ISAF World championships, an event that was plagued by light winds.
The Medal Race was just like the regatta, dominated by New Zealand. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) had an insurmountable lead going into the final. They had a middling first beat, but then made their move with a gybeset on the first run. They got into the lead by the bottom marks and never looked back, taking a huge win in the Medal Race to cap their huge win in the regatta. The duo are winning regattas and races by margins never seen before in the 49er, and look unstoppable. Time will tell whether they can hold this kind of form all the way through to Rio.
The real fight in the Medal Race was for the silver medal in the battle of Olympic gold medallists. Jonas Warrer, the Beijing 2008 Gold medalist with Anders Thomsen (DEN) were only two points off the London 2012 Gold medallists, Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen (AUS).
Outteridge and Jensen got off to a good start and were third around the first top mark while the Danes were back in eighth. However, there were position changes on every leg of the race, and on the final upwind the Danes got past the Aussies to secure their silver medal, leaving the Aussies to settle for Bronze.
The crowds were so big that it was standing room only, and they reserved their biggest cheers for the Paz brothers from Spain, who get their highest ever worlds finish with a 10th place.
In a week of highs for Irish qualifications in Santander James Espey in the Laser Standard was the first to qualify. A total of 72 nations were in contention for the top 23 spots but Espey secured Ireland's first ticket to Rio with ease as 16th nation. He finished 37th overall from a fleet of 147 boats.
Annalise Murphy, who had a poor start to the regatta, made a comeback to win the country its second place - this time in the Laser Radial class. Murphy finished 20th overall from 120 boats and 16th nation. Only the top 19 nations from a total of 58 earned their right to compete in Brazil.
Narrowly missing out on qualification were Andrea Brewster & Saskia Tidey. Competing in the female 49erFX skiff, they wrapped up an intense event as 13th nation and just shy of the necessary top 10.
18–year–old Finn Lynch was also competing in Spain at his first Laser Standard World Championship and finished in 101st place finish from 147.
Ross Hamilton was competing in the Finn class and finished 64th from 78.
