Irish sailors Finn Lynch and Ewan McMahon are battling it out for a spot in the Men's ILCA 7 single-handed event at the Paris 2024 Olympic regatta. With just five months to go before the event begins in Marseilles, the two are gearing up for the second of three regattas at the ILCA 7 European Championships in Athens next week.
It'll be an interesting week if Carlow's Lynch – after finishing ninth overall in last month's ILCA 7 class world championships in Adelaide, Australia – can hold form. He could arguably expect a top-five finish as the Athens fleet does not appear to be as high quality as Adelaide. Only three of the World Championship medal race competitors are entered (Lynch, Kontides and Jurassic), with a host of World and European athletes marked absent, such as British ace Micky Beckett from Wales, his training partner Sam Whaley of GBR, Tomassgard of Norway, Bernaz of FRA, Bos of NED and Buhl of GER.
Lynch hailing from the National Yacht Club on Dublin Bay holds the edge in the Irish trials but 'Green Rebel' independent campaigner McMahon, from Howth Yacht Club, is not too far behind and is expected to put up a stiff challenge at the upcoming event in Greece.
With a total of 141 boats participating in the event, the competition is sure to be intense. A strong showing by McMahon could leave the pair needing the French Olympic Week event in April to decide the Irish Sailing nomination to the Olympic Federation of Ireland.
The trials will be decided on a high-points scoring basis that incentivizes both sailors to concentrate on their best regatta score rather than winning the place for Paris 2024. Lynch, who previously won Silver at the 2021 World Championship in Barcelona, is keen to secure his spot in the Olympics after missing qualification for the Tokyo Games.
Despite the notoriously demanding nature of the Men's single-handed event, Lynch is raring to go and has his sights firmly set on Olympic glory. If he can hold off McMahon and secure his place in the Irish team, he'll be one step closer to achieving his dream.