A medal of any colour would be the goal for any Olympic aspirant to kick-start their campaign for the coming quadrennial. And so it was for Ireland’s Finn Lynch at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma on Saturday morning when he rounded off a six-day event with bronze after a short medal race final in ideal conditions off Ca’n Pastilla.
Having qualified in the silver position, Lynch had a mathematical as well as logistical challenge on the water as he was one of four sailors who could take one of two medals left after Britain’s Michael Beckett secured gold without needing the final day’s result.
In the end, Britain’s other finalist Elliot Hansen took an early lead in the race to win it convincingly, leaving Lynch to cover Italian Lorenzo Brando Chiavarini to ensure that the third medal went to Ireland.
Lynch has a new coach in Australian Ben Walkemeyer, who he shares with Howth’s Ewan McMahon, who is also a strong candidate for the sole place in the men’s one-person dinghy at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The past week has seen a mixed bag of results from both Lynch and McMahon but the Carlow sailor had the edge with a race win and two second places over the 10-race series that produced the top 10 overall finishers for the medal race.
McMahon had ended his series on a high with a win on Friday’s 10th race of the 50-strong gold fleet, which wasn’t quite enough to get him beyond 13th overall and into the final.
Lynch credited Walkemeyer’s fresh approach for helping him this week, especially for race starts, something that McMahon also benefited from.
A battle between the pair of team-mates is certainly on the cards as both push one another to up their game for selection trials.
