The Irish duo of Sean Waddilove and Robert Dickson came agonisingly close to securing a medal at the Paris Olympics this afternoon, with the pair finishing fourth in the men's skiff event.
They entered today's medal race in second place, knowing that a finish of fourth or higher would guarantee them a medal. There was a long buildup to this final race, with two failed attempts to hold it yesterday due to a lack of suitable winds in Marseille.
It was eventually rescheduled for today, although things did not go Ireland's way once it began.
The Irishmen would experience a false start in the race, crossing the start line before they were permitted to do so. As a result, they were forced to circle back and start again as their competitors got the race underway.
The result of that was that Ireland were immediately well behind their competitors, a gap they were unable to overcome. They would eventually finish ninth of the ten boats, with Croatia disqualified from the race.
As a result of the other finishing places in this race, this saw them finish in fourth position overall.
READ HERE: Paul O'Donovan Had Hilarious Response To Praise After Olympic Gold With Fintan McCarthy
Ex-Olympic Medalist Explains Error That Cost Irish Duo Sailing Podium
While Sean Waddilove and Robert Dickson were not billed as major medal hopes coming into the Olympics, the manner in which they missed out on the podium this afternoon is sure to have been a disappointment. They would have secured a bronze medal had they finished just a couple of positions higher in the final race.
Speaking on RTÉ, 2016 Olympic silver medalist Annalise Murphy summed up what went wrong for the Irish pair.
'It's such fine margins but they were that little bit ahead at the start'
Annalise Murphy and Ciara Peelo on the false start which cost Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove finish fourth #RTESport #Paris2024
📺 Watch https://t.co/XnOP6grnB7
📱Updates https://t.co/18WgncFAEe pic.twitter.com/2QB1INNsiQ— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 2, 2024
They are going to be so disappointed. It's one thing to lose a medal when you sail the race really well and you get beaten, but to be over the start line and you have to go back, you're not even in the race and watching from afar trying to hope that your main competitors do badly in the race.
It's just horrible to see it like that. They sailed so well all week, they deserved more. Sport is horrible sometimes, I feel so sorry for them...
In training you do hundreds of (starts). Sometimes you will go out in a day ad just practice starts over and over again.
It's getting good at judging the distance of the line between two fixed points. It's not something that is new to them.
Normally if the race committee can't see what boats are over the line, they will think it's unfair, so they call everyone back. But when they can see which boats are over the line and already know who it is, they just do an individual recall.
That means those boats have to come back, but they don't get told. You have to make a judgement call 'do I think I was over'.
This was still a fantastic performance from the Irish pair, who were vastly improved from their showing in Tokyo three years ago.
Still, the opportunity to win an Olympic medal is one that does not come around all that often.
SEE ALSO: Sonia O'Sullivan Spoke A Lot Of Sense On Rhasidat Adeleke Decision To Skip Mixed Relay
