Irish crews started their journey towards the Los Angeles Olympics on the Bay of Palma, Mallorca today at the first major regatta since Paris 2024.
After their disappointment of narrowly missing a medal in Marseille, Rob Dickson and Sean Waddilove opened the Princess Sofia Trophy with a tenth place followed by a race win at the start of their series in the men's skiff event.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing for Olympian Eve McMahon on her first day back in competitive action after a busy winter of training.
The Howth sailor lies 45th overall out of 113 boats in her women’s one-person dinghy after 23rd and 22nd places in Monday’s two races.
"I'd be lying if I said I was happy with it," McMahon said. "A couple of costly things happened today but that's sailing and that's high-performance sport at its best."
In the men’s one-person dinghy, Carlow sailor Finn Lynch had a steady start to his event with two top tens in his 174-boat event.
But he has strong competition in this new Olympic cycle with growing form from Ewan McMahon, older brother to Eve who also had a good day, counting a fourth place followed by a 15th.
"It's fantastic to kick off the LA2028 with the first day in Palma," McMahon said after racing ended. "It was a solid first day, I couldn't ask for much more; a good first race and I consolidated after a poor start in the second."
A total of ten disciplines make up this regatta with close to 800 crews in action. Ireland is competing in four events with all of the Paris 2024 squad back in action.
All events compete in a qualification series for the first three days that decides places for the Gold fleet round for the top boats. On Saturday, only the top ten competitors in each event go forward for the medal race final to decide the podium.
