Only one out of Irish two laser radial sailing hopefuls will represent Ireland at the Tokyo 2020 next year, and they were both in studio with OTB AM!
Both Aisling Keller and Aoife Hopkins qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic sailing regatta in the women's single handed-event this morning.
While both pairs placed within the qualification criteria, only one will ultimately ended up representing Ireland at the Olympics.
"The event is six days long, three days in then the fleet is split up into the better half and the worst half," said Aisling.
"Thankfully, we were in the better half. We kind of just had to keep our head and stay sailing to make sure we were in the top ten of the unqualified countries."
Kelleher ended up finishing 46th overall in the Gold fleet final series while Hopkins place 48th. This meant Ireland took the seventh nation spot out of ten available.
While they worked together to qualify, sailing is ultimately an individual sport so it's always been in the back of their minds.
“When we do have to deal with it, it will be harder for one of us than the other. We have known for years that it was going to be this way," said Aoife of the competition on the horizon.
"We got into it knowing that it’s a sport where if you qualify as a country only one person from that country can go."
“If you take the Dutch team as an example three of them are in the top ten in the world and only one of them will make it to Tokyo.”
It will all come down to three regattas next year, to decide which sailor will represent Ireland.
"There will be a few different regattas next year and, in the end, we will find out at the end of April. There are three regattas and it will be based on our performance in them," Aoife continued.
"It will definitely be a different dynamic during the Olympic trials, but I assume we will keep the same communication and whoever performs better on the day will go through."
Aisling and Aoife will be looking forward to the competition as it is built into their makeup, but the clear friendship between the two makes the battle a hard one that only sport can create.
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