#49er – Belfast lough's Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern are lying 30th at the 49er European Championships in Porto, the second city of Portugal. After four races sailed the Rio qualified pair's top result was a fourth in today's second race. Download results below. Results in this regatta are important for the Northern Ireland duo. Though they have already qualified for Rio, this event represents one of only three annual opportunities to meet Irish Sports Council funding criteria. The sole Irish pair will need a top three finish to move up a financial bracket.
A port tack flyer launched the Portuguese into the lead in Porto. Jorge Lima and José Costa have claimed an early lead in the 49er European Championships on home waters in Porto, the second city of Portugal. With the 79-boat fleet split into three qualifying divisions for the first three days of competition, the inshore course favoured the right-hand side strongly throughout the day, especially so in light airs that never exceeded 8 knots.
While most of their competitors were battling for a start line advantage at the right-hand end near the committee boat, Lima and Costa decided to take their chances with a port-end start. It paid off handsomely, with the Cascais team taking an early lead in both of the last two races of the day, and leading both heats from start to finish. Banking scores of 2,6,1,1, the Portuguese hold a 1-point advantage over Poland's Lukasz Przybytek and Pawel Kolodzinski, who also sailed a brilliant day in their qualifying fleet with scores of 1,2,4,2.
Asked what was their secret today, Lima replied: "Local support, from our sponsors, our families and friends. We are from the South, these are not our local waters and we haven't done that much training here. But it's good to be in our home country with the support of our own people, and that makes a difference." Lima and Costa wear the yellow Seiko rash vests for day 2, but with a total of 20 scheduled races and just four completed, they know it's far too early to be counting their chickens. "It's a good position to be in, but we have to perform every day if we have a chance of winning these Championships."
For the Poles, lying in 2nd overall is particularly important as this regatta is one of the trials for Olympic selection for Rio 2016. The same is true for the Germans, and it's been a disappointing start for the defending European Champions, Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel who lie in 35th overall. Worryingly for them is that recent winners of Kiel Week, young guns Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme, are sitting in 4th place overall with scores of 6,1,1,7.
Other good performers on day one were British team, John Pink and Stu Bithell, in 3rd overall, and the 2012 Olympic Champions from Australia in 5th, Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen. Not such a good day for the 2012 silver medallists from New Zealand however, with Pete Burling and Blair Tuke sitting in 8th overall. A 4,6,2 wasn't too bad, but a UFD disqualification in heat three was the Kiwis' undoing. "The start hooter came up a bit later than we expected," shrugged Burling. "We knew it was close. Speed was OK though, just a couple of decisions we made that could have been better." Even after an average first day, the Kiwis remain the hot favourites for overall victory, now on an unbroken winning streak of 16 major regattas since London 2012.
