As the 49er European Sailing Championship enters its halfway stage in La Grande Motte, France, two Irish sailing teams have qualified for the Gold fleet final round that begins on Friday. Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove, veterans of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, hold a slim lead over Cork rivals Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan, who are proving themselves able contenders.

Up to seven races remain in the championship that will decide which of the two Irish boats will be nominated for inclusion in Team Ireland for Paris 2024. Guilfoyle and Durcan must finish five clear places ahead of Dickson and Waddilove in the final standings on Sunday next.

Currently, the Dublin crew is 16th overall, just nine points ahead of the Crosshaven crew. The 68-boat fleet is facing difficult conditions, with double-world champions Bart Lambriex with Floris van de Werken of The Netherlands dropping to 13th place, and a narrow spread of points separating most of the top 20 crews.

"We had crazy racing for the first two days with lots of crashes," said Matt McGovern, Irish Sailing's 49er coach. "We are now into light winds, so it's going to be very, very shifty and tough to predict for the rest of the event.”

"As it stands, both our boats are going alright, and full credit to Séafra and Johnny who need the best results they've ever had; they've done job one of getting into Gold fleet.”

"Rob and Sean are just keeping the head and not worrying about selection. There's way too much racing left to worry about that."

The 49er European Championship is the third and final selection trials regatta to decide Ireland's representative for the men's skiff event at the Paris 2024 Sailing regatta. Irish Sailing's other two events will be represented by Eve McMahon in the women's one-person dinghy (ILCA6 class) and Finn Lynch in the men's one-person dinghy (ILCA7), who are both already confirmed.

With a big three days remaining and the points finely spread, anything can happen. The Irish sailors aim to qualify for the Olympics and represent their country in Paris 2024.

At least 63 nations will be represented across 10 events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Regatta this summer after qualifying concluded at last week's Last Chance Regatta in Hyères, south of France.

The action will begin in Marseille on July 28th, and every continent will be represented. Between the Sailing World Championships in The Hague last August and the Last Chance Regatta held as part of the Semaine Olympique Française, sailors from across the world earned 326 places.

Four Universality Places will be awarded by the IOC’s Tripartite Commission in the coming weeks—two in the women’s dinghy ILCA 6 and two in the men’s dinghy ILCA 7—to bring the total number of athletes to 330 and likely take sailing past the 65 nations represented at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Host nation France, Germany, and Great Britain are the only countries to have qualified a boat in all 10 events in a regatta that will feature the men’s and women’s kite for the first time and the foiling windsurfer, the iQFOiL, making its debut.

Great Britain – who lead the all-time sailing Olympic medal table – needed the Last Chance Regatta to fill their 10th place with Connor Bainbridge earning a berth in the men’s kite with a dominant performance in Hyères.

France—which hosted the first Olympic sailing at the 1900 Games, when three sailors shared five gold medals between them—will hope to add to the 49 medals it has earned in Olympic history.

Germany has not won an Olympic gold in the sport since Jochen Schümann, Thomas Flach, and Bernd Jäkel won the three-person keelboat in 1996, but being able to put so many boats on the water means they will hope to improve on that record.

China, Italy, Spain and the United States each have nine places.

The inclusion of the Formula Kite class for the first time has provided Mauritius with the opportunity to qualify two athletes, trebling their all-time Olympic representation in one Games following Marie Menage and her exploits in the women’s windsurfing in 1992.

The Last Chance Regatta concluded with six of the eight men’s and women’s dinghy Olympic places on offer at the Last Chance Regatta claimed by sailors supported by the World Sailing Emerging Nations Programme.

The six increased the overall number of Emerging Nations Program (ENP) sailors who will be attending the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to 21, a rise from eight at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.

To see the full qualified nations table for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, go here.