Consistency in tricky conditions has enabled Finn Lynch to maintain his second overall in a stand out performance after four races at Palma, Mallorca’s giant Trofeo Princesa Sofia regatta. It heightens the prospect of a medal race finish – and maybe more – this Saturday for the National Yacht Club solo sailor.
"I'm delighted with a big catch up in Race 1 to finish second after rounding the first mark in 13th", the 22-year-old said, chalking up his third second of the regatta in a scoresheet with four top five results (currently discarding a fifth from race four).
Norway’s Miami winner in January Herrmann Tomasgaard leads the Laser class from Lynch and while there may be some notable absentees in the massive 170-boat entry (such as world ranked number one Sam Meech of New Zealand and Olympic champion Tom Burton of Australia) there is no doubting the significance of the Dublin Bay sailor's breakthrough in Palma. In his wake in these qualifying rounds are, for example, double world champion, Britain's Nick Thompson in 12th and in 23rd place Robert Scheidt the Brazilian sailor, who has won two gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze from five Olympic Games.
Howth's Ewan McMahon, the 2016 Laser Radial World silver medalist, now embarked on an Olympic campaign is 48th. Ballyholme's Liam Glynn is 156th in the regatta that kick starts the Olympic classes season in Europe.
Full results are here
The fleet will be split into gold, silver and bronze divisions on Thursday.