Lynch sails into history books with silver

Carlow’s Finn Lynch delivered the best Irish result in the competition’s 41 years when he won silver at the Four Star Pizza ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships in Dublin Bay yesterday.

The 16-year old took advantage of his nearest rivals’ battle for the gold medal at the back of the Laser Radial boys’ fleet to finish ninth on the day, good enough to move up from third overall and secure the silver medal.

Australian Mark Spearman, lying second going into the final day, set out to beat American race leader Mitchell Kiss into last, or almost last place, which would dump him out of top spot. Lynch was aware of the showdown behind him and while Spearman clinched his gold by finishing one place ahead of Kiss in 51st place, the Irish sailor was busy working his way back up the field from 30th place. The devastated Kiss dropped off the podium entirely.

For a first-time outing in the championships, Lynch was thrilled with the result.

“My goal going in was top 10 and get good experience in a big event, but I suppose I’ll take silver!” he deadpanned.

Meanwhile, the other four Irish crews in the 350-strong event had a mixed set of results.

Patrick Crosbie and Grattan Roberts placed 13th overall in the 420 boys’ class after a third place in testing conditions. Their previous best was a week ago on the opening day when they had a second place in the 30-boat class won by Spain’s David and Alex Charles.

Dun Laoghaire’s Sean and Tadgh Donnelly managed to retain their 10th overall in the 29er Skiff class, where Carlos Robbels and Florian Trittel, also from Spain, won overall with a race win yesterday.

Alexander Rumball and Rory McStay were disqualified from the final race as the tide proved even trickier in the near-calm conditions on Scotsman Bay and they placed 10th overall in the SL16 Catamaran class.

Sophie Murphy from Strangford Lough ended 13th overall in the 48-strong Laser Radial girls’ class.