Irish debutantes Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove have been disqualified from races five and six of the Tokyo Olympic Regatta today for the use of a trapeze harness that was 'too heavy'.
The hammer blow to the Irish camp comes after the Howth and Skerries pair posted a superb second in race 5 and followed that with a sixth in race 6 to put them in seventh place overall and a medal chance at the halfway stage of the regatta.
When the fleet of nineteen 49ers arrived ashore in Enoshima, they were 'routinely spot-checked' by the official equipment measurers. In two cases - Ireland and Brazil - it was found that the trapeze harnesses used by the sailors to hang from wires to balance the boat were slightly in excess of the permitted weight. This amount was 90 grams for the Irish equipment. The measurers then lodged a protest as the official complaint procedure in sailing, which was heard by the International Jury who deliberated for almost two hours
The decision now drops the Irish duo to 13th overall and significantly outside the top ten overall The Olympic Games Technical Committee took the case against Ireland after it performed a check of the weight of the trapeze harnesses of the whole 19-boat 49er fleet ashore after race six.
An International jury convened immediately after racing to hear the protest found that the Trapeze harness used by the helm of IRL during races 5 and 6 weighted 2.09kg, .09 of a kilo above the permitted weight.
The harness includes removable back support that even when included, meets the target weight of two kilos. The Irish crew had measured their harnesses on three separate occasions prior to departure for Tokyo and each time, were found to be compliant.
The jury also found that a harness of the Brazillian team was also overweight and weighed 2.30kg.
The harnesses were saturated manually in a bucket for the test.
They were hung open for at least one minute allowing the water to drain freely.
Spoiling a great scoreline - the two DSQs have dropped Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove out of the top ten overall
During the hearing competitors were allowed to rearrange the items when the weight recorded exceeded the amount permitted. The scale was calibrated with a 2kg weight.
The harnesses in question were weighted several times with the lowest weight being recorded.
The full official result of the protest hearing can be downloaded below as a PDF file.
Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove were regatta leaders on day one of the event
Reacting to the news of the very heavy penalty delivered to Ireland and Brazil, Tytus Konarzewski, the Polish coach that brought the Irish duo to U23 World Championships success in the class in 2018 said: "Rules are rules".
"It is very simple if you want to be Olympic Champion you need to care always about small details which are important"
"0.09g does not make you faster…but our sport is technical, the whole equipment has to be correct according to the demands of class rules", he said.
"I think they took today, the best lesson in their life, they will be ready for Marseille 2024".
"They should try as soon as possible to forget about this and come back to focus about racing as there is still a lot of racing to be done", he added.
The Irish crew say that they had measured their harnesses on three separate occasions prior to departure for Tokyo.
James O'Callaghan, Performance Director with Irish Sailing said "The issue still needs to be addressed by the class how equipment so widely used by the whole fleet could still be found to be slightly overweight at the Olympic Games."
