Ireland's Dickson and Waddilove secure 2024 Olympics spot with Portugal performance

Robert Dickson with Sean Waddilove who finished 8th the Gold fleet final at the 49er European Championships.

After narrowly missing one of ten nation places for the Paris 2024 Olympics in August, Ireland’s Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove secured the only place available at the 49er European Championship at Vilamoura, Portugal yesterday (Monday 13th November).

The Dublin crew had a delayed start to the 2023 due to prolonged illness for both sailing athletes though they appeared to be on form for the combined world sailing championships at The Hague in August.

But their race starts became an Achilles Heel and two race disqualifications marred a solid performance and they missed their nation qualification goal.

But for the past three months, intensive preparation work on starting tactics as well as light wind performance would prove decisive at the six-day European championship on the Algarve.

Ireland’s Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove.

Light winds and delays to racing were daily occurrences and worsened on the final day which was supposed to have a single race for the 25-strong Gold fleet to decide the top ten crews for the short medal race final.

Dickson and Waddilove were already in eighth place with an Italian crew threatening from ninth place.

But a dead calm persisted for most of the day and eventually the schedule was abandoned and the Irish result stood.

With the qualification hurdle cleared, the pair can now cement their more rounded performance but must also prepare for a trials series to select which boat will be nominated for Team Ireland.

That means Crosshaven’s Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan will have an opportunity to challenge Dickson and Waddilove, provided they can build on some of their own strong results from the past week in Portugal.

Although the Cork crew ultimately missed out on a Gold fleet place, they delivered a second place and a race win the Silver fleet before the light winds closed off further opportunities.

That leaves the world championships in Lanzarote in February and the next major goal and focus for the coming winter training plans.