Team Ireland sailors Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove ended their Olympic journey on Saturday following their final three races.
After a delayed start to their day’s racing at Enoshima Island in Tokyo, the Irish sailing duo, Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove got the final day of their 49er fleet races underway.
Going into this afternoon’s sailing, the pair sat in 14th position, and needed conditions and results to go their way in order to finish in the top 10 and advance to the medal race.
Their disqualification two days ago dropped them from seventh to 13th and they had been playing catch-up since.
A strong opening Race 10 for the team, saw them finish in third place putting them right in the mix.
A tougher Race 11 followed though, and they finished out the race in 17th place.
A fantastic final Race 12 saw them take the win that perfectly bookended their Tokyo journey with a win at the start and a win at the end.
However, it wasn’t enough to see them through to the medal race, as they bowed out of the competition in 13th place overall, just three spots outside of qualifying.
Speaking afterwards, Dickson said: “I’m pretty proud of the way we sailed, it’s really good to finish on a high with the last race, and pretty amazing that we got two race wins. We’ve learned a lot from these games and we’re going to bring that forward to [Paris] 2024.”
Waddilove added: “Overall, it was a very positive experience and we’ve learnt plenty from this Olympic experience that we can bring forward.”
“My biggest takeaway from this week is that we were very much capable of competing against these guys that have done multiple Olympics and have medals and medals under their belts and there’s no reason why we can’t get to 2024 and be medal contenders.”
