#AqueceRio_en – There were ideal conditions of up to 20–knots for Aquece Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil yesterday as Ireland's Annalise Murphy confirmed her medal race participation in the Laser Radial with the title to be decided later today.
There will be some disappointment though that after leading the Olympic test event at the halfway stage on Wednesday, the National Yacht Club sailing star, who had a stunning 1,4,4 in the opening three races, has now dropped to tenth overall after a lowly 20.0, 12.0 and 19.0 in yesterday's final three rounds of the opening series.
Regardless, the overall result is a credible peformance in a very strong fleet in some tricky conditions and the Dubliner progresses to the medal race stage because the ten boats ranked highest in the 25–boat fleet are assigned to compete.
Annalise said afterwards on facebook: 'A very difficult day yesterday inside Guanabara bay. I had some good moments but made quite a few mistakes including not checking my foils properly which caused me to sail an entire upwind with a plastic bag on my rudder!'
At the top of the fleet, two points split Tuula Tenkanen (FIN), Evi Van Acker (BEL) and Anne Marie Rindom (DEN) following a topsy turvy day on the Escola Naval race course. Tenkanen picked up an 11-2, Van Acker a 13-1 and Rindom a 10-3. All three sailors count their double digit scores to tighten the points up. Tenkanen and Van Acker have 30 points whilst Rindom has 32, Alison Young (GBR) is fourth on 40 points heading into the Medal Race that starts at 12:40
Results here
