Howth Yacht Club’s Aoife Hopkins has announced her retirement from Olympic campaigning.

The ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) sailor and former U21 European Champion had been readying for the Paris 2024 qualifying campaign, following the disappointment of missing out on Ireland’s sole spot at the Tokyo 2020 games last year.

Only this past summer it was announced that 23-year-old Hopkins would share with fellow HYC prospect Eve McMahon in The Olympic Federation of Ireland Paris Scholarships fund for their Olympic preparations.

Sailing since she was nine years old and well regarded as one of Ireland’s top sailors, Hopkins achieved her personal best result when she placed 17th overall at the 2021 ILCA 6 World Championships in Oman, where she also scored one of two World Championship race wins in her career.

Before that, arguably her biggest highlight was her win at the U21 Europeans in 2017 — just weeks after sitting her Leaving Cert — and that same year she graduated to the senior Irish Sailing Team.

Hopkins balanced sailing with her studies for a maths degree over the subsequent years, and together with Aisling Keller helped secure Ireland’s single qualification place for the ILCA 6 at Tokyo 2020 during the class Worlds in Japan in 2019.

However, Hopkins’ hopes of securing that spot were dashed when the following summer’s Olympic trials were cut short in the early months of the COVID pandemic, and Rio 2016 silver medallist Annalise Murphy was selected instead.

Aoife Hopkins had been gearing up for the Paris 2024 qualification campaign after the disappointment of Ireland’s Tokyo 2020 selection

At the time, both Keller and Hopkins expressed their dismay, with the latter saying: "I really can’t understand the decision not to continue with the trials. I am utterly and completely devastated.”

Hopkins did not appeal the decision by Irish Sailing and took some time out to reassess her situation.

The young sailor missed the Irish ILCA 6 title nationals on a tie break in Kerry in August but did lift the ladies' salver. Her most recent victory on the water was as helm of the J80 Ladies of the Kite, leading a team of under-25s to the Sportsboat title at last month’s Women at the Helm regatta.

Aoife (second from left) among the winners with the ILCA 6 Ladies' Salver in Tralee in August

Before the event, Hopkins said: “Events like these are super important for women in sport and women in sailing … and it’s brilliant to see the turn out today. This is the one event of the year when the women’s changing rooms are busier than the men’s!

"It gives women the opportunity to helm boats that they might not have and to actually showcase their skills and what they can do because it’s not really about capabilities, it’s about opportunities.”

Afloat.ie wishes Aoife Hopkins the very best in her future endeavours.

Two Howth Yacht Club Olympic campaigners will share in The Olympic Federation of Ireland Paris Scholarships fund, as preparations are already underway for the Summer Olympic Games in Paris 2024.

Dublin's ILCA 6/Laser Radial campaigners Aoife Hopkins and Irish Sailor of the Year Eve McMahon - who begins her Leaving Certificate examinations this morning - will receive $15,000 each from the Federation.

A total pot of $350,000 will be distributed to Olympic hopefuls with the Women’s Hockey team awarded the team grant of $100,000. The fifteen individual grants to a total of $250,000 were awarded to athletes from twelve sports.

The funding for the grants is primarily provided through a combination of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Olympic Solidarity programme funding and OFI funding, split $250,000 from the IOC and the remaining $100,000 from the OFI to allow for a greater number of scholarship awards in Ireland.

Aoife Hopkins

The scholarships aim to support the athletes in their preparation for Paris, and to assist on the qualification journey. Athletes were nominated by the national federations and are representative of a mix of Olympians targeting a second Games, and athletes targeting an Olympic debut.

Making the announcement, Team Ireland Chef de Mission for the Paris Olympic Games, Gavin Noble, said,

“Thirty-five individual nominations were received from nineteen member sports for the Paris Scholarship fund, and today we are delighted to formally announce our Paris scholars and of course our support of the women’s hockey team. In the Tokyo cycle, twelve scholarships were awarded, and from those nine athletes qualified for the Games, with two finalists in the Tokyo Olympics. Naturally, we are aiming to build on those results. Through the support of the International Olympic Committee Solidarity Fund, and with the additional backing of Permanent TSB, Allianz and Deloitte, we are able to fund more athletes, to a higher level than ever before, and it is very much part of our performance and commercial strategy that we continue to move in this direction.”

Details of all recipients are below:

TEAM GRANT - $100,000

Women’s Hockey Team

The Women’s Hockey Team were awarded the team grant of $100,000 to assist with their preparations towards Paris 2024. The team consists of both experienced players who competed in the Tokyo Olympics, and emerging talent looking to make their Olympic debut in Paris.

INDIVIDUAL GRANTS – $15,000 PER PERSON

Howth Yacht Club's Aoife Hopkins holds 20th overall going into the last races of the women's Laser Radial (ILCA6) world championships in Oman on Monday.

Tokyo 2020 Gold medallist Anne-Marie Rindom has regained the overall lead of the championships after nine races sailed with two second places for the day coming after a 13th for the opening race.

Hopkins managed to retain her overnight 20th place after a three-race day at the championships that have been blighted by light winds.

The Paris 2024 campaigner opened the day with a 39th place before improving with 23rd and 19th place in the 63-boat fleet on the penultimate day of racing.

A tenth race of the series on Monday will allow a second discard to be applied across the scoreboard. This will allow Hopkins’ 39th place to be dropped though other competitors currently ranked behind her have worse scores to discard so a shake-up of the standings is likely.

Download results below

Howth Yacht Club sailor Aoife Hopkins improved her overall standing at the women's Laser Radial (ILCA6) World Championships in Mussanah today after two further light air races and a long day afloat.

Hopkins finished 16th and 15th for 20th place overall. Her placing has improved steadily from 31st overall since Thursday in the 63-boat fleet.

Light winds continue to dominate the regatta that is being officiated by Principal Race Officer Con Murphy of Dun Laoghaire. The fleet waited at sea for two hours before just enough breeze filled in to get racing.

Overall, Agata Barwinska of Poland leapfrogged Julia Büsselberg to climb from third to first, leaving Büsselberg in second place for the second day in a row. Emma Plasschaert of Belgium moved up to third.

However, the day belonged to Cristina Pujol Bajo of Spain who rose through the rankings to end the day in fourth after winning one race and finishing fourth in another. Olympic Champion Anne-Marie Rindom of Denmark sits in fifth with Viktorija Andrulyte of Lithuania a point behind having dropped from fourth to sixth today. Eleven points separate first and sixth, so it could all change again tomorrow.

Viktorija Andrulyte of Lithuania, said, “Today, as has become usual, we are waiting for the wind to pick up. The wind has been unstable all day, so we were able to start. Two races today. I didn’t start well but climbed up, even to first, but lost pace in the down while trying not to get a yellow flag. But I also made some mistakes. I also picked up a penalty for an incident, but I still tried my best to the very end and finished top 20. I am improving and not losing as much in the downwind, so I am really happy about that.”

Hannah Anderssohn of Germany, said, “The races were quite tough for me, I had a very difficult start. But slowly I am improving and going a bit better. In general, it is very difficult to get off the start line.”

Rosie Chapman, US Sailing coach, said, “It’s a big fleet, really awesome to see so many people make it to Oman. We have had a challenging start to the regatta and there hasn’t been a world championship for a couple of years but it is exciting to see the level of the fleet and how far it has come since the last regatta. Having had a delay on the Olympic Games, the girls coming straight from the Games are pretty busy for the next quad and there are some younger girls coming through and challenging everybody, so it’s really good to see that. The key names are here and the young girls are coming up and making a difference.”

The high scores continue to be a feature in the fleet so nothing can be taken for granted with two days of racing remaining.

Organisers will continue to plan for three races on each of the remaining days to sail as many of the races as possible.

Results are downloadable below

Howth Yacht Club's Aoife Hopkins had her best day so far at the Laser Radial (ILCA 6) World Championships in Oman scoring 15th in the single race of the day.

The light breeze that arrived for the day came after a delay of two hours and only permitted one race before darkness fell.

Hopkins is currently 27th from 63 thanks to her 15th today in a race where there were ten black flag disqualifications.

Three races had been planned to get the event back on schedule but now organisers hope to have extra races on Saturday to catch before Sunday and Mondays' final races.

Belgium's Emma Plasscheart won the single race and has a narrow lead over Germany's Julia Buesselberg who was one of the disqualifications.

Results are downloadable below

The opening race of the women's Laser Radial (ILCA6) World Championships in Mussanah, Oman has been postponed due to lack of wind at the venue.

A fresh attempt to start the series will be made on Thursday to begin the qualification rounds for Gold and Silver fleets.

Ireland is represented by Aoife Hopkins and Sienna Wright of Howth Yacht Club. As Afloat reported earlier, Wright's older brother Rocco is competing in the men's division.

Hopkins will be aiming for a strong result to follow on Finn Lynch’s (National YC) silver medal at the Laser Men’s (ILCA7) World Championship and Sean Craig's World Masters fourth, both secured in Barcelona last month.

Up to 12 races can be scheduled with the provision to sail extra races daily when weather impacts the programme.

The final result is expected by lunchtime (Irish time) on Monday 6th December.

Two Howth Yacht Club sailors are preparing for the ILCA 6/Laser Radial World Championships in Oman this morning.

Dubliners Aoife Hopkins and Sienna Wright are both on the entry list for the championship which takes place from November 29 to December 6, with racing starting on December 1.

64 entries from 31 countries are entered. 

Fresh from hosting the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 World Championship, Al Mussanah in Oman is the location for this year’s regatta. It can be a tricky venue, characterised by light, offshore winds as well as high temperatures.

Adding to the Irish interest in Oman is the fact that the Principal Race Officer is Dun Laoghaire's Con Murphy from the National Yacht Club. The event director is also Irish, Joe Rafferty, who was also in charge of the 49er Worlds at the same venue a fortnight ago.

This week's regatta follows enormous success for the Men's ILCA 7 and Radial divisions as Afloat reports here and here.

Howth Yacht Club ILCA 6 sailor Sienna Wright Photo: Bob Bateman

A third Howth sailor, the world youth radial champion, Eve McMahon, is also slated for competition in Oman when she competes at the World Youth Sailing Championships in 11 days time.

It’s been almost two years since the last ILCA 6 World Championship was held in Melbourne, Australia. Ok, there’s been the small matter of the Olympics, but for the majority of ILCA 6 athletes, this will be the first global event for a while.

The official website featuring results and the full entry list is here

Men's Radial Worlds

In what is an add-on the women's event, with an entry of just seven from five countries, Wright's brother, Rocco will also be competing this week.

With seven results from ten races sailed in the top third of her 66-boat fleet – including a race win – Radial youth sailor Eve McMahon of Howth Yacht Club launched her campaign for Paris 2024 in style today finishing in fifteenth overall at the ILCA6/Radial Europeans in Varna, Bulgaria.

McMahon's clubmate and rival for Paris, Aoife Hopkins was 25th.

Agata Barwinska of Poland was the overall winner. 

Results are here 

Aoife Hopkins

Irish youth sailor Eve McMahon from Howth took a well-earned win in a breezy race eight of the 2021 Women's ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) Senior European Championships & Open European Trophy in Varna, Bulgaria today.

After nine races sailed, McMahon, who won the Radial Youth world title in August, stays 15th overall, but within eight points of 11th overall on 136 points in the 66-boat fleet.

McMahon's clubmate Aoife Hopkins is in 25th place on 220 points.

Strong wind and a big swell (plus cold and rain) made the Irish girls feel right at home on the Bulgarian Black Sea.

The Women’s championship changed hands for a second consecutive day today, with the Polish sailor Agata Barwinska POL (3-1) heading the competition on 38 points.

22 points behind is now the overnight first Basileia Carahaliou GRE (18-15) with 60. Third place for the previous days leader Line Flem Host NOR (27-4) with 70.

Maxime Jonker NED (13-2) is fourth, only one point behind Line. French sailor Louise Cervera FRA (5-14) is fifth with 81. Ascending Hannah Anderssohn GER (6-3) is sixth with 98.

Daisy Collingridge GBR, Elena Borobeva CRO, Anna Munch DEN and Marie Barrue FRA complete the provisional European Top 10.

Two last races are planned for tomorrow.

There were mixed fortunes on day two for the Irish Women at the 2021 ILCA Vilamoura European Continental qualifier for the Olympic single-handed dinghy (M&W).

Aoife Hopkins of Howth Yacht Club climbed five places to 33rd posting a 6th and a 35th in today's two races.

Tokyo bound Annalise Murphy of the National Yacht Club scored 41st and 7th to lie 35th while Eve McMahon, HYC, is 79th after a 37th and 27th today.

The women enjoyed the better breeze in the later afternoon, but will probably have to put up with lighter breezes tomorrow as they go out ahead of the men.

Full results are here