3 days ago
Eve McMahon in medal mix at European Championships
Eve McMahon remains in contention for a medal after all three Irish sailors at the Laser European Championships in Sweden qualified for the one-person dinghy gold fleet series.
The deciding six races will be held from Thursday until Saturday in Marstrand and Howth's McMahon holds third place in the overall Open Trophy senior women's ILCA 6 (laser radial) class at the end of the qualification round.
The 21-year-old is nine points off leader American Erika Reineke but just one point behind Italy's Chiara Benini Floriani in second, with the latter duo also first and second in the separate European Championship rankings.
However, McMahon was lucky to hold her top-three position when the final race of the qualification round was cancelled due to very light winds.
She had incurred two technical penalties and would have carried maximum points had the race been upheld, which would have left her barely inside the gold fleet qualification criteria.
McMahon leads the U23 classification from Roos Wind of the Netherlands by 22 points.
Meanwhile, Eve's brother Ewan McMahon dropped to 30th overall in the ILCA 7 (laser standard) European Championship Open Trophy after he struggled in the conditions.
Carlow's Finn Lynch did better and lies in 16th overall (tenth of the Europeans) at the halfway point of what was a 153-boat event.
