Howth Yacht Club’s Eve McMahon and Rocco Wright delivered fantastic performances over their seven-races series which began last Sunday.

Eve McMahon led her 55-strong field from day one. She scored all top three results for the week including four race wins.  Her worst result of the week (6th place)  came in the final race today.

“It feels amazing – last year’s fourth place in Oman was so disappointing,” McMahon said shortly before the medal ceremony. “I’m so proud of Ireland to achieve gold at the worlds and to make it a double in the same year is history-making.”

Wright also claims gold

Rocco Wright made his mark in the Male single-handed event on his first ever appearance at a Youth Worlds. He finished the penultimate day in second overall but only separated by tie-break from the leader.

A confident start in the final race today saw the Dublin sailor beat Ole Schweckendiek by finishing fourth, one place ahead of his German rival. This was enough to break the points tie as American Peter Barnard missed the podium with a 14th place.

“I tried not to think about the others around me and just sail my own race,” said Wright about keeping focused at his first Youth Worlds appearance. “I didn’t expect to win so it’s all a bit mind-blowing really.”

“I was so surprised that Rocco displayed such maturity at such a young age (15) as he remained calm and executed the result,” said Vasilij Zbogar, Irish Sailing’s Laser Coach.

“Two Irish winning Gold in the ILCA6 … I still can’t quite believe it; the work is paying off – all of us are on the right track,” Zbogar added.

Both McMahon and Wright now switch their attention to Texas later this month where they compete in their ILCA6 class world championships, a stand-alone event that differs from this week’s championship where all disciplines are in competition.

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The 17-year old Howth Yacht Club sailor won the 2021 Youth World Championship at Lake Garda, Italy, last August.

McMahon celebrated in the traditional manner by jumping overboard. Her close competitor Roos Wind from The Netherlands congratulated McMahon back on her dingy.

The ILCA6, previously known as the Laser Radial, is the women’s single-handed event for the Olympic Games. Annalise Murphy won silver for Ireland at Rio 2016 after narrowly missing the podium at the London Games four years previously.

“You really couldn’t get better than that”

“Originally, I was using this regatta as a warm-up event as I hadn’t sailed for a long time while sitting my Leaving Cert,”said McMahon shortly after coming ashore. “I was really pleased with my final day, I finished with two bullets so you couldn’t really get better than that.”

McMahon now heads to The Netherlands for the Sailing Youth World Championships next week followed by Texas for the defence of her class world title.

“I’m just focussing on my processes and on my own sailing and not at results too much – but obviously a win would be great,” she said.

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Seventeen-year-old McMahon was consistent from the early stages of the week’s racing in Italy and won three out of the five qualifying races.

A disqualification in the first race of the final series moved her back a few points, but her lead was too great and she beat Anja Von Allmen of Switzerland and Sara Savelli of Italy to take Gold.

The ILCA 6 Youth World Championships are open to sailors who were 18 or younger on the registration day, July 23, but at least 15. The Girl’s Fleet saw 109 athletes compete.

A former Irish Sailing Youth Sailor of the Year in both 2020 and 2019, today’s medal marks a three-in-a-row run for McMahon.

This summer she has taken silver in the U19 category of the EURILCA (European region of International Laser Class Association) U21 European Championships in Montenegro, and silver in the EURILCA Laser Radial Youth Championships in Croatia.

Irish Sailing coach Vasilij Zbogar said:

“It was a tough day with tough conditions. The wind went from 10 knots to 0 at some points, so it was really hard to manage. Eve did an amazing job because it was really unpredictable. She kept herself calm and didn’t panic even in a stressful situation”.

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