Three crews in Miami chasing Beijing place

SAILING COLUMN: WHEN THE first gun is fired in today's opening race of the Star class World Championship, Miami's Biscayne Bay will become a battlefield of proportions that will almost rival the Olympic Regatta itself.

Admittedly, the world title is almost irrelevant to a large portion of the fleet in pursuit of the four remaining nation places available for Beijing 2008.

But in Ireland's case, apart from chasing qualification for the country itself, no fewer than three teams will be in the hunt. For each, concentrating on placing as high as possible in the worlds while avoiding a tactical battle with either of the other contenders will be uppermost in the minds of each of the crews.

On the grid, there is little to tell between each and all are capable of delivering the national place for Ireland.

But if a favourite has to be called, then it is the pairing of Maurice "Prof" O'Connell and Ben Cooke that would, in theory at least, be the favourite thanks to their "near-miss" at last summer's World Championships at Caiscais, in Portugal, where the pair missed qualification by just one place.

That result was vindication for O'Connell, who had previously been dropped from the front-row of the Olympic squad for average performances. But an injury to his hand last Christmas was an unwelcome set-back in his build-up to his task alongside Cooke at this week's championship.

Ligament surgery took six weeks to heal and meant he missed the annual Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, the first major pre-games event of the year. Though O'Connell and Cooke placed sixth and eighth in the opening races of the subsequent Bacardi Cup, their form slipped in that event which saw another rising star of the small Irish fleet lay down a marker.

Peter O'Leary's young programme for the 2012 games has had two major boosts thanks to recent race wins, form indicative of a potent threat to the longer-standing campaign.

And both boats will be joined on the 110-boat starting-line by another long-standing campaign in the form of Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks.

This pair have not been as intensive in the Olympic preparation stakes as the other two campaigns but, equally, their usual form does not place them so far down the fleet that a burst of good results couldn't yet threaten the running-order.

Already Brazil, France, Britain, Poland, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Australia and the US have secured places at Qingdao for the Olympic Regatta. The next four highest-placed national boats will secure nominations for their countries.

In Ireland's case, the task of selecting which of the three campaigns is certain to be heavily influenced by performance at the world championship, but also depends on performances at nominated events prior to final selection.

In other words, nothing is certain based on the outcome of next week's event other than Ireland must have a finisher in the next four qualifying nations.

Provided the qualification result is achieved in Miami by the end of racing next weekend, a fourth Irish boat could be joining Tim Goodbody in the Finn single-hander, Ger Owens and Phil Lawton in the 470 event and an as-yet un-selected women's Laser Radial single-hander.

Meanwhile, in the Paralympic Games events, the Sonar class has been secured by Paul McCarthy, Paul Ryan and Richard Whealey, who defeated the veteran John Twomey.

However, the latter recently joined Amy Kelehan in the Skud class, where they finished fifth in the Disabled World Championship and secured another nomination for Ireland.

That will keep the Irish Sailing Association's Olympic steering group busy with selections in the coming weeks.