Finn Lynch will seek to repeat or better his 2021 World Championships silver medal in Monday's first races of the ILCA7/Laser World Championships at Riviera Nayarit, Mexico, in a fleet of 125 sailors from 45 nations.
Lynch (26) and second Irish Paris 2024 campaigner Ewan McMahon (21), along with Irish coach Vasilij Žbogar arrived in Mexico a week ago.
As regular Afloat readers will know, last November's silver medal was a career-high for Lynch and Ireland's best-ever men's Laser result. The result also provided the Carlow man with much-needed funding. On Monday, he embarks on his silver medal defence with Sport Ireland podium funding of €40k per annum in his hip pocket.
The National Yacht Club ace is also boosted by some promising early season results that saw him take fourth in Palma in April (while nursing an arm injury). Admittedly Lynch did not make the medal race in Hyeres later in April but still managed a top 15 finish, both high-quality results setting him up well for this week's successful world championship defence.
Two Irish ILCA 7 campaigners, one Olympic place
Overall, It's an optimistic scenario at this stage in the Paris 2024 triennial. What's more, Ireland has the added spice of up and coming talent in Howth's McMahon.
McMahon has rapidly become Ireland's second most successful men's Laser sailor after Mark Lyttle, the Dun Laoghaire solo ace who sailed first for Ireland in the Laser in the 1996 Olympics.
Howth Yacht Club campaigner Ewan McMahon
Lynch v McMahon
As with all venues, each race track has its own characteristics. In Riviera Nayarit, the intriguing question – in an Irish context – is, with solid and steady breezes the norm, will these conditions suit Lynch or McMahon best over a 12-race series?
Lynch tends to put together an incredibly consistent series, and recently he has been coming through as the week progresses, ticking off one rival after another as they knock up a big score.
It's a winning formula, and the trickier the conditions, the more the talented Carlow man seems to thrive.
This week's challenge for Ireland's number one might be that steady sea breezes could be a leveller.
Could the regatta be more of a speed test than regattas in European or venues with more unstable conditions?
Indeed, the younger MacMahon is a tall athlete with excellent boat speed (especially downwind). In this regatta, any tactical or experience deficits (expected at his age) might not be such an issue.
From various reports (including comments from his coach), McMahon still has to improve his upwind tactics and position on first beats, convert good speed, and get into top-10 windward mark rounding.
After Palma's April regatta, Zbogar said, "The results don't show it, but it's only some small mistakes keeping him out of the top 20". "He isn't losing any places on the downwind, but we need to work on executing the upwind legs better."
The Hague 2023 and Paris 2024
It sets up an increasingly competitive scenario where the two Irish sailors will attempt to qualify Ireland for the single place in Paris 2024 at the first opportunity in The Hague in August 2023. It's still not popular in some circles to mention that it is a qualification standard Ireland failed to make for Tokyo.
From this tiny Irish squad of just two, what happens if we have two sailors right on top of their game in the World's top 20?
Does the dynamic change? Does Lynch have to start considering his Irish competition in earnest, possibly negatively impacting his own programme?
Early answers to these questions probably lie on the Vallarta race track and the defence of Ireland's best-ever men's Laser result starting this Monday.
Monday and Tuesday will form the qualifying round of the regatta with two races daily scheduled that will decide the Gold fleet finalists before the final result is decided on Saturday.
Update: Sunday, May 22 8 pm: Ewan McMahon is reported as 'unwell'. The Irish camp says he is under the care of the squad physio but the 21- year-old has already missed two days of training.
