O’Leary and Burrows strike gold in Weymouth

Ireland’s Peter O’Leary and David Burrows signalled their intent for London 2012 on Saturday when they won gold at the pre-Olympic world cup regatta in Weymouth.

The pair defeated Britain’s Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson and four-time Olympic medallist Robert Scheidt with Bruno Prada from Brazil in the double-scoring medal race finale for the top 10 boats in their class.

The result followed the earlier Laser Radial class medal race in which Ireland’s Annalise Murphy won bronze. None of the class regulars such as China’s Lijia Xu, Belgium’s Marit Bouwmeester or Evi Van Acker from the Netherlands featured on the podium.

Both Irish boats repeated previous performances and matched medal results at Weymouth, the venue for the London Olympic sailing regatta. The 49er skiff pair of Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern also performed well, placing seventh in their final marking one of their strongest results to date.

With around six weeks to go before the main event, team preparation will focus on building venue familiarity. The proximity to Ireland has served the Irish sailors well, often delivering similar conditions to home waters as well as easier travel access.

Meanwhile in Lisbon, the penultimate stage of the Volvo Ocean Race got underway yesterday as the six-boat fleet departed Portugal for France via the Azores on a 2,000-mile leg. Four boats are in contention for the overall trophy, an unprecedented scenario in the race’s 40-year history.

France’s Franck Cammas on Groupama 4 that includes Ireland’s Damian Foxall is the current overall leader after a progresive decline in performance by Spain’s Iker Martinez on Telefonica.

However, American Ken Read on Puma has consistently been closing the gap on the lead and yesterday set the pace exiting the historic port city of Lisbon.

Leg 8 of the race series is expected to end next weekend while the final In-Port Race is scheduled for Galway on Saturday, July 7.