SAILING/Qingdao Pre-Olympic regatta: In Qingdao, a young Irish squad completed the final rounds of the pre-Olympic regatta this week with two of five crews making it in to the final medal race.
The Chinese test event is seen as a major indicator in the sailor selection process for many of the teams competing in the 2008 Olympic Games.
Some positive individual scores will give heart to Irish selectors, chaired by Colm Barrington, who have declared only sailors capable of delivering a top-eight result next year or those who are seen as prospects for 2012 will be considered for OCI nomination.
Only the Dún Laoghaire 470 crew finished in the top third of their fleet. Ger Owens and Phil Lawton made it into the 470 medal race to give them 10th overall in a fleet of 27. The 470 world champions triumphed with Australian's Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page winning the medal race to secure gold.
In the men's keelboat class the Star pair, Maurice O'Connell and Ben Cooke, made it to the medal race and finished 10th in a fleet of 17. They took a creditable sixth in the medal.
Otherwise, Irish selectors have been presented with a mixed bag of results following a week where Qingdao both lived up to its reputation as a difficult light air venue but also surprised with breezes reaching 12 knots by yesterday's closing day.
The 49er duo of brothers, Russell and Matt McGovern, were 20th out of 23. Tim Goodbody was 19th out of 25 in the men's Finn single-hander finishing second in the penultimate round. Debbie Hannah was 22nd from 30 in the Laser radial.
The British team won two further gold medals yesterday to take their haul to five gold and one silver. Paul Goodison won gold in the men's single-handed Laser class by three seconds, to give Skandia Team GBR, the British team preparing for Beijing, their fourth gold. Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson also won gold in the Yngling class, finishing nine points ahead of the Dutch team.
