Historic Worlds medal for Howth sailor Eve McMahon
Eve McMahon has become the first female Irish sailor to claim a world championships medal.
McMahon, 22, made her Olympic debut last year after a stellar underage career and the Howth woman has won the bronze medal at the ILCA World Championships during an epic final day in Qingdao, China.
McMahon finished a remarkable series in third place in the women's ILCA 6 event behind Poland's Agata Barwinska in second while Louise Cervera of France took gold.
It is the first time an Irish female sailor has medalled at the senior World Championships and a huge achievement for McMahon, who already has two back-to-back under-21 World Championships to her name.
"This is another truly historic moment for Irish Sailing, Eve is the first female sailor to win a senior world championship medal,' commented James O'Callaghan, Irish Sailing's Performance Director. "Massive credit goes to Eve's determination and coach team of Vasilij Zbogar and Rory Fitzpatrick."
In the six races sailed in China, McMahon recorded results within the top six places in the 99-boat event while also avoiding any penalties. "We were struggling in the last few events but we've worked really hard to fix that before coming to China," commented Zbogar.
"We spent time in Lymington training in (tidal) current with the British team and that really helped us fight for a medal - and get a medal.
"It was a really difficult day with very strong winds but Eve made three solid races. She is sailing really well and we're looking forward to the days and months of competition ahead."
In the ILCA 7 men's event, Carlow's Finn Lynch (National Yacht Club) bounced back from a faltering start on Friday with three top six results including second place in the final race.
Those results moved him back up the leaderboard to end 15th overall, though a longer regatta would likely have seen him in a more familiar top 10 result.
Team-mate Ewan McMahon (Howth YC) - Eve's brother - counted a ninth and a tenth in the 138-boat event to finish 19th overall and just four points behind Lynch. Like his sister, he scored only top 10 results reflecting a very close points difference at the top of the fleet.
Meanwhile, on her first senior level world championship, Sienna Wright (Howth YC) ended in an impressive mid-fleet position though a ninth place in her opening race on Friday plus several top 20 results are indicators of her growing form.
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