How Can Ireland Win A Medal In Sailing's 49er Class?

Sailing scoring may look complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple – you get one point per finishing position in each race. So, the winner of each race gets one point, 2^nd gets two, 10^th place finisher gets ten points etc.  Sailors/crews can then discard their worst score and add up the rest and the lowest score wins.

The top ten crews in the skiff event – the 49er category – after 12 races qualify for the “medal race”. This isn’t a straight race for the medals but rather it’s a race where your score counts double. Winner gets two, 2^nd gets four, 10^th place gets 20.  These are then added to the previous score and that’s the final score.

As that was being typed, it did actually sound a little complicated but regardless, for Ireland’s Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove the 12 preliminary races are over and there’s just the medal race left.

They currently stand in 2nd position on 73 points. The leaders are Spain on 68 and they’re not unassailable. If Ireland finish 3 places ahead of Spain in the medal race, they’ll beat them but, on the other hand, there’s 6 crews that can finish ahead of Ireland based on the final medal race. It is going to be very tight for the 3 medals on offer.

Here’s how those top 7 stand:

1. Spain – 68
2. Ireland – 73
3. New Zealand – 76
4. USA – 80
5. Poland – 83
6. Britain – 85
7. Croatia - 85

Switzerland, China and Uruguay are also in the medal race, but they can't finish ahead of Ireland.

To guarantee a medal, Ireland must finish 4^th or higher.

They can still win a medal if they finish lower than that, but it will depend on the results of those around them. The maximum score any nation can add is 20 now. The minimum is two.

Here are the scenarios

If Ireland win the final race

They’ll be on a maximum score of 75. They’ll be guaranteed to win silver and will win gold if Spain finish 4^th or lower.

If Ireland finish 2^nd in the medal race

They’ll be on a maximum score of 77. They’ll be guaranteed to win silver and will win gold if Spain finish 5^th or lower.

If Ireland finish 3^rd in the medal race

They’ll be on a maximum score of 79. They’ll be guaranteed to win bronze and will win gold if Spain finish 6^th or lower and New Zealand finish 2^nd or lower.

If Ireland finish 4^th in the medal race

They'll finish on 81 points and they’re guaranteed bronze. The colour of their medal would depend on the combination of results elsewhere. We’ll try and explain more

For teams to finish ahead Ireland, here is what they need

• Spain – Just need to finish within 2 of Ireland. If Ireland are first, they need third, etc.
• New Zealand – Need to finish 2 ahead of Ireland to overtake them. If Ireland are third, they need to win, etc.
• USA – Need to finish 4 ahead of Ireland.
• Poland – Need to finish 5 ahead of Ireland.
• Britain – Need to finish 6 ahead of Ireland.
• Croatia – Need to finish 6 ahead of Ireland.

So for Ireland to guarantee a medal, they need for four of those things not to happen. The hardest way is to finish 9^th and have all the stars align elsewhere. The simplest way of guaranteeing a medal though is to finish 4^th or higher.

The medal race is scheduled to take place at 13:43 (Irish Time) in Marseille. Fingers crossed that Ireland can our third sailing medal in Olympic Games history.

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