Ireland is looking for places at the Paris 2024 Olympic Regatta this week when it competes at the Sailing World Championships in Holland.
As Afloat reported previously, Irish hopes for Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification are high, with some strong performances after July's Test Event in Marseille.
The Championships is a multi-class regatta that takes place once an Olympic cycle. In 2018 the Danish city of Aarhus held the regatta, and now it’s the turn of the Dutch capital, The Hague, to play host, with the action taking place in the beach resort of Scheveningen (below).
Sailing for Ireland in The Hague are five Dublin sailors and two from Cork Harbour. Three of the seven are already Olympians from both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
2022 World Youth Champion Eve McMahon from Howth Yacht Club sails in the ILCA 6, and her brother Ewan McMahon also from Howth and 2016 Olympian from Rio Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club), compete in the Men’s ILCA 7. Dublin reps from Tokyo, Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Seán Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) and Cork duo Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan (both Royal Cork Yacht Club) are all competing in the 49er Men's skiff event.
A top 16 finish in each of the ILCA events will secure a spot for Ireland at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, while in the 49ers, a top 10 finish is required.
Racing starts on August 11 and finishes on August 20.
Unlike the Paris 2024 test event that saw only one entry per class per nation, the Sailing World Championships is open to multiple entries in each class – and that means huge fleet sizes. More than 1,400 of the world’s best sailors will descend on The Hague for the regatta, including over 60 British Sailing Team and British Sailing Squad athletes.
The second of two major regattas this summer, the Sailing World Championships promises to be massive. It’s the first time that nations can qualify for a spot on the start line at next year’s Olympics. And just to up the ante even more, many nations are still in the process of choosing their Paris 2024 team, so performance on the waters of The Hague is absolutely critical.
Read all the news on the build-up to Paris 2024 on Afloat here