The Irish crew of Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove are through to Gold fleet at the 49er World Championship and Olympic qualifier in New Zealand, but Ryan Seaton and Séafra Guilfoyle missed out.
Following a nine race qualification round, Dickson and Waddilove remain in the hunt for one of four Tokyo 2020 Olympic nation places available this week, only their third appearance at a senior level world championship.
In a reversal of fortune for double-Olympic veteran Seaton with crew Guilfoyle, the pair missed a Gold fleet place in a three-way tie-break for 25th place and will sail the remainder of the series in the Silver fleet.
"Regardless of where Rob and Sean finish, they've achieved a personal best and have had a great regatta," commented James O'Callaghan, Irish Sailing's Performance Director.
"We're still in the fight and the good news is that there's strength and depth in the squad."
Seaton and Guilfoyle started the third day of racing with a sixth place in their flight, repeating their consistency from Wednesday.
A dip in form followed with an 18th in the penultimate race.
Starting with the leaders for race nine, an incident at the first turning-mark meant taking a penalty and they lost ten places to finish 18th once more.
"There's just no room for error and they had an error," said O'Callaghan. "Ryan and Séafra are very disappointed but they accept that it's a fine margin at this level and that they missed the cut for Gold fleet."
