Eve McMahon takes gold at LA Grand Slam
The 21-year-old Howth-native made a big breakthrough in May with a World Championships bronze and became the first Irish sailor to reach top spot in the World Sailing rankings for the ILCA 6 last month.
She continued her good form at the LA event, which is the fourth Sailing Grand Slam of the season. It also marks a major milestone ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
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She had to overcome a rocky start in the 44-boat class to do so. McMahon finished sixth, 18th, and was disqualified in her third race. However, such was her consistency thereafter that Ireland's youngest-ever Olympic sailor was able to discard the latter two results.
She finished in the top five for six of the next seven races, including one win, a second, and two third places.
McMahon entered the final day 14 points behind Britain's Hannah Snellgrove, but a third-placed result snatched a narrow lead and 10th in the final race secured gold.
Her net total of 45 points saw her finish 11 clear of Snellgrove in second.
'I'm delighted to win here in LA. Racing on the future Olympic waters is really motivating,' said McMahon.
'I really wanted to go out there today to see what I could do, so I'm really happy with how I performed and that I was able to come away with the gold.'
Fellow Olympian Finn Lynch and Eve's brother and teammate Ewan McMahon were also sailing at the event in LA and finished 8th and 17th respectively.
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