Ireland's Paris 2024 49er duo Robert Dickson (Howth Yacht Club) and Sean Waddilove (Skerries Sailing Club) are first into action in the Men's skiff event when their fleet series begins on Sunday (28th July) at the Olympic venue in the port city of Marseilles on the southern French coast.
The pair, who are veterans of Tokyo 2020, came away from June 22nd's pre-Olympic 'Magic' regatta with a very positive fourth scored in a 20-boat fleet, so they are naturally feeling confident even though some main contenders were absent. In some respects, the Magic event posed more questions than it provided answers but it is a reasonable assumption that Ireland is in the mix and very capable of improving on the 13th overall result achieved in Tokyo three years ago.
"We are in a really good place; we have had a few curve balls, such as cancelled sailing due to a weather front, but nothing too big to handle," he said. "The guys are in good form and very relaxed and confident, so as good as can be at this stage, a couple of days out," said Ireland's 49er coach Matt McGovern.
International punditry reckons the 49er medals will be a 'close, three-way duel'. The Dutch duo of Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken are favourites, they won three back-to-back Worlds and last year’s Test Event. But they’re likely to be pushed hard by local hope Erwan Fischer and Clément Pequin (FRA), the current World Champions looking for a home win, along with Spain's Diego Botin and Florian Trittel.
49er Paris 2024 Schedule
Fleet racing begins on Sunday, July 28 and continues for four days until the medal race on August 1st.
Later in the event (1st August 2024), Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) and Eve McMahon (Howth Yacht Club) begin their respective events in the men's and women's single-handed dinghy events (ILCA7 and ILCA6 classes).
