When Finn Lynch sails out into the choppy waters of the North Sea on Saturday morning, his task of staying focused on two relatively short races will mask the significance of the occasion.
After the past week of testing weather for the entire Irish Sailing senior squad attending the Allianz Sailing World Championships at The Hague, just Lynch remains in the hunt to bring home a positive outcome to reflect well on the months of training and preparation effort for this crucial event.
At face value, the championships combine all 10 Olympic disciplines as well as four paralympic events sailed from Medemblik.
Podium results always make for neat headlines and would certainly be a bonus outcome. But as this combined event only occurs once every four years, it is next year’s Paris Olympics that is the true goal and this week is the major qualification opportunity.
Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’
Two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2024
Pub staff struggled to keep up with giddy Shamrock Rovers fans who enjoyed every moment of Chelsea trip
Money a whole different ball game as NFL and GAA eye Croke Park game
And, while qualifying Ireland to have a representative compete in each discipline was the ideal outcome, for Lynch it represents that and much more.
Achieving a qualifying result is something that he hasn’t actually managed himself despite having represented Ireland at Rio 2016.
For that Olympic regatta, the job of qualifying was delivered by James Espey which then triggered a selection series in which Lynch’s rising star led to him becoming the youngest competitor in his event in Brazil that year.
Being an Olympian brought added pressure and expectation so in 2019 at the last combined worlds ahead of the Tokyo Games, Lynch fell short of the qualifying criteria and also missed out at the subsequent opportunity so didn’t compete in Japan.
Which is not to say the he has been on a downward trajectory: since Rio he has multiple event wins as well as a silver medal at world championship level, which is by far the best Irish men’s result in the Laser (now ILCA7 dinghy).
In this notoriously unforgiving event, just the smallest error can prove costly though the Carlow man often proves he has a knack for recovering lost ground.
Like this week for example, when in Race 7 on Thursday he was second place at the first mark, a crucial position that would allow the race leaders defend their lead while the main fleet fight for clear air and boatspeed at mark roundings.
But the surging tidal current that has been the bane of race management teams and sailors alike all week – and likely this weekend also – pushed him towards the mark. Skewing his boat around the inflatable almost had him clear but the tip of his boom clipped the mark.
Obliged by the rules to take a penalty turn or face heavier sanction later, Lynch spun his boat in the choppy waters as the front-runners powered past him.
The mark round soon became highly congested with multiple collisions and Ireland’s other Gold fleet sailor Ewan McMahon neatly skipped past the chaos. Lynch too was free of the danger and he succeeded in recovering enough ground to place seventh in the 80 boat fleet.
That result compensated in part for some of the earlier results that gave him some weighty points and moved him from 33rd to 23rd overnight. Virtually all of the top sailors incurred at least one particularly bad result during the week but in Lynch’s case he had an extra mid-fleet result pulling him down.
Nevertheless, the Irish world number five ranked sailor goes into the final day 14th best by nation place, with two countries inside the 16 places to be allocated for Paris 2024 this weekend.
All he needs from Saturday’s breezy two races are two of his better results, not necessarily exceptional but safe enough to deliver on his own expectations for years of intense training and effort.
