Sailing stars nearing end of isolation post-Spain
‘It’s likely that final qualifying will be put back to 2021’
SOME of Ireland’s top sailors will come out of a 14-day period of self-isolation today after leaving a training camp in Mallorca two weeks ago, just before the government announced their first measures in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
The six athletes had been on the Spanish island, preparing for a world cup event in April, which had already got moved from its original venue in Genoa because of Covid-19, and had been informed by Irish Sailing at the time that they should make their way back home.
‘The world cup had been moved from Genoa to Mallorca and we had a number of athletes training over there, ahead of that,’ Irish Sailing Association High Performance director James O’Callaghan explained.
‘On the day before the Taoiseach announced the closure of the schools, Simon Coveney warned Irish citizens about travel to Spain, so we consulted with the athletes and decided the best thing to do was to get out of Mallorca however they can.
‘They were all back in Ireland the next day. It means that we have a lot of equipment over there, but it is all safely in storage. At the time, some of the other teams were wondering why we were pulling our athletes out but by one o’clock the next day, they were starting to do the same.’
Mallorca is not the only place where some of the ISA’s equipment is currently being stored.
There are also two containers waiting to be shipped from Australia, where Ireland medal prospect Annalise Murphy competed at the world championships last month.
‘We have equipment due to be shipped to Tokyo from Australia. It was supposed to be shipped this week, because it has been in storage since the world championships. But we decided to hold off and now I don’t know where is best to ship it, should it go to Tokyo or back to Ireland? It’s a decision that will have to be made in the coming weeks.’
The International Olympic Committee’s announcement to postpone this summer’s Games until April next year at the earliest has thrown sailing, like every other sport, into a state of flux. Ireland had only had one boat, in woman’s laser, already qualified for the Olympics but a number of other boats were expected to be in contention. They now will have to wait until World Sailing decide on a revised qualifying system.
‘It is up to the governing body of every sport to decide what this will mean for their own Olympic qualification and how it will affect the process,’ O’Callaghan added yesterday.
‘There might be room for an event in the autumn of this year, but it’s more likely now that the final qualifying event will be in early 2021.’
However, O’Callaghan firmly supports the IOC and the Japanese government for their decision to postpone the games. In a time of such global crisis, it was the only decision that could be reached.
‘The athletes’ time to shine will come but our priorities right now is that we all work together as a society and do our bit to find a global solution to this crisis,’ he said. ‘It was the right decision and I am glad they took it at this time. It was really the only decision that could be made.
‘I think some of the criticism of the IOC was a little unfair in the past few days. They had to take their time to make the decision, because there are so many stakeholders involved in an Olympics. It is the pinnacle of global sport. So, everyone had to be involved. But it was clear when Australia and Canada pulled out that a decision was imminent.’
O’Callaghan said that all athletes will simply have to adjust, as everyone else in society is doing. The ISA are currently doing strength & conditioning sessions via a video-link for their High Performance athletes.
‘It is almost like an off-season for the athletes, except that it’s not, so we just have to look at the best way of doing this while the world deals with this problem.
‘Some things are just bigger than sport and when we come out the other side, the Tokyo Olympics can be a celebration for everyone that things have returned to normal.’