The National Yacht Club's Finn Lynch from Dun Laoghaire continues his top form by being in the leading pack of the Laser European Championship on day one in Portugal yesterday.
The opening day's performance is added to a string of top results since January at World Sailing Cups that saw the Carlow man become the first Irish sailor ever to make a World Cup medal race in the men's Laser class.
The Irish Rio rep secured a second and third placing in the opening two races to lie fourth overall (but in a four-way tie on 5 points for first place) in a line-up of 162 competitors.
With 48 of the top 50 ranked sailors in the world racing the event is on a par as a World Championships because this week's “open” category allows non-European nations to race and it is, therefore, excellent practise for Lynch's critical Olympic qualification Championship in July.
Other Irish sailors competing in the men's class are Liam Glynn and Ewan McMahon.
The 162 World Top Laser Standard sailors participating of this Championships were divided into 3 fleets, with 4 of them now initially leading the competition with 5 points. Those are Philipp Buhl GER (1-4), Joaquin Blanco ESP (1-4), Niels Broekhuizen NED (3-2) and Finn Lynch IRL (2-3).
Howth Yacht Club's Jamie McMahon lies fifth in the men's Laser Radial Class.
The races that will crown next Saturday the European titles of the Standard Laser Class (male seniors), Laser Radial (female seniors) and Laser Radial Open (all ages and genres) began yesterday.
323 sailors representing 55 countries competed on the Atlantic cities of Matosinhos, Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia.
A weak wind prevailed on the first day of competition but allowed the two regattas scheduled for the race to be completed.
In the women's Laser Radial category, Malaysian sailor Nur Shazrin Mohamad Latif leads the standings. Aoife Hopkins and Aisling Keller from Ireland are competing.
Full Laser Radial Women results
In the Laser Radial Open category, Martim Fernandes leads the classification after obtaining the 3rd and 2nd positions in both races.
For the second day of competition, Tuesday, two more races are scheduled, with races starting at 12 PM