Irish sailor Eve McMahon secures Olympic qualification

Nineteen-year-old from Howth produces a brilliant display to qualify with a race to spare

Howth’s Eve McMahon completed a hat-trick of Irish sailing qualification places for the Paris Olympics by securing a place in the women’s single dinghy event from this week’s ILCA6 World Championships in Argentina.

Seven nation places for next summer’s games were decided from off Mar del Plata with the Irish sailor taking the second of these in a carefully managed series to ensure qualification.

Her single final race on Wednesday saw her place second on the water, but the job had been done the day before with a race to spare when the 19-year-old became mathematically unbeatable for a nation place. In the end, she finished the 103-strong event in 20th overall.

It was still a taste of what is to follow as acknowledged by Rory Fitzpatrick, Irish Sailing’s head coach, who previously helped Annalise Murphy achieve her silver medal success at Rio 2016.

“Eve is definitely capable of better performances in terms of the world championships, but to secure qualification she’s had to start races very conservatively just to give herself an advantage,” he said.

Read David Branigan’s full article on the Irish Times – Click Here