SAILING: The first trial for Olympic selection in the Star keelboat begins next week and it is an Irish selection series that for all parties involved could not have arrived any sooner.
After a year of boardroom debacles over selection procedures, next week's Miami Olympic Classes regatta (MOCR) marks the first of three trials, between now and May, where off-the-water tactics stop and on-the-water action can begin.
There will be no trial in Irish waters, however, due to the absence of a domestic fleet.
Instead selectors have opted for three international grade one regattas on both sides of the Atlantic where fair sailing is guaranteed by an international jury and a keen eye kept on measurement and crew weight.
At home the fall-out from the Dublin-Cork duel has lived up to its billing as one of the most acrimonious in Irish Olympic sailing history.
Fair sailing will be the watch-word for these positive points trials that will decide the fate of the two crews by May 9th at the latest.
Even before the class world championships began in Cadiz last September the off-the-water dispute for Ireland's single place in Athens spilled out in front of an international jury amid what turned out to be unsuccessful protests by triple Olympian Mark Mansfield under the fair sailing and sportsmanship rule.
So in establishing the trials between Crosshaven's Mansfield and crew Killian Collins as favourites and Dún Laoghaire's Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks there was little surprise that there have been a number of arguments put before team selectors on how the trials should be conducted.
Mansfield continues to argue about the fact his regatta transport costs have soared because of the decision to have one trial in the US and the other two in Europe.
Even so, team manager Garrett Connolly, exasperated by the distraction of the spats that at one stage looked certain to be heading for the Court of Arbitration for sport (CAS), maintains that whoever emerges on top following the final trial at the Italian World championships represents a "medal zone prospect" in the second week of August.
The publication of last October's International Sailing Federation (ISAF) ranking list that confirmed Treacy and Shanks, in 13th place was significant because it earned the Dublin Star keelboat campaigners the right to an Olympic trial.
Now the Olympic standard has been achieved the Royal St George pair face the biggest hurdle of their Olympic dream in 72 hours' time.
They must dislodge a veteran of three Olympics in a class that Mansfield has virtually made his own. As the incumbent, Mansfield has a sailing CV like no other, posting four top-10 results in the last four world championships since 2000.
He previously finished third, eighth, 10th and fifth overall last September in the Bay of Cadiz world championships where he also qualified the country (but not yet himself) for Athens. But despite this impressive span in one of the world's toughest keelboat classes and the fact the Cork pairing has beaten Treacy and Shanks at all 13 of their encounters at international grade one regattas so far, he is, nevertheless, faced with the prospect of trials against the newcomers.
Monday is the first trial the world-ranked number four will have confronted since Bill O'Hara and Owen Dennis fought him unsuccessfully for selection in the run up to Atlanta '96.
MOCR on Biscayne Bay is a full week's sailing and it is also the venue for Ireland's paralympic selection in the Sonar class. The class is qualified, the first of two trial regattas has already taken place, and it all hinges on the results at MOCR.
John Twomey from Kinsale with crew Seán McGrath and Brian O'Mahoney hold a small advantage over Paul McCarthy, John Paul Ryan and Chris Thomas, also from Kinsale. The points difference going into MOCR is a mere 18 and with 25 points available for a race win, and 75 points available for a regatta win it's still all to play for.
Race details available on: www.ussailing.org.
