Dickson and Waddilove remain in the hunt for Olympic spot

Dublin pair Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove avoided any weighty scores to sit in 18th place overall at the 49er European sailing championship in Portugal with one day of the qualifying series remaining.

The hunt for the single nation qualification place at Paris 2024 intensified today with the Irish hopefuls knowing they must finish inside the top 25 to race in the Gold fleet final round that is expected to begin on Saturday.

The current points spread from first place to 18th is 14 points, with as many races remaining to sail to move up the ranks.

"We've had pretty light conditions so far and we're pretty happy that we've come away without any really big scores," commented Robert Dickson. "The key for this week is to be consistent and we've been doing that so far."

Ireland's second crew in the competition didn't fare so well in the very light wind conditions.

Seafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan slipped to 59th overall and must close a 20-point gap in just two races to make the Gold fleet cut-off on Friday evening.

Ten nations are chasing the single place available at this championship for next year's Olympics with further qualification opportunities due in the early 2024.