Lack of upwind pace in strong Mistral conditions left Finn Lynch fighting to regain places in the first ILCA 7 races of French Olympic Sailing Week today.
The Paris 2024 campaigner, who is nursing a long-term wrist injury, confronted near gale force winds at Cap de L'Esteral, Hyeres.
“I didn’t feel super-good to be honest; I was struggling a lot, the conditions were very, very hard, but hopefully, better performance by me in the next few days,” the Irish world number three said. “I need to prioritise starting as I found myself in bad lanes on the upwinds.”
Lynch, who seeks a medal race finish this week, was around 25th in his fleet after the first upwind leg, but he recovered in the downwind and still finished around 12th to stay within the qualifying limit for the gold fleet.
Two further races will be sailed on Tuesday to complete the qualification round for the Gold fleet in the ILCA7, but similar conditions, if not harder, is forecast.
Ewan McMahon, Lynch's rival for the single Paris ILCA 7 berth, is not competing in Hyeres.
Britain’s Elliot Hanson, second here last year and Germany’s Philipp Buhl, fifth at the Tokyo Olympics, got 2-1 and 1-2 finishes, respectively to top the leaderboard, but Australia’s Olympic champion, Matt Wearn bagged two fourth places.
Results are here