Aquece Rio – International Sailing Regatta 2014 has drawn to a close with the Laser, Laser Radial and 470 honours being picked up on the final day of action. Ireland's Annalise Murphy, a one time regatta leader in the Radial, finished tenth overall after a tough medal race finish yesterday where she picked up maximum points. The Dubliner is heading home having concluded that she knows what she needs to do to crack Rio.
Racing on the Pão de Açucar race track, a south easterly breeze in between 5-10 knots allowed all the fleets to conclude their racing. The breeze died towards the latter part of the afternoon.
'I finished up 10th overall in Rio today. I have learnt a huge amount about this place over the last two weeks and know what I need to work on to crack this place,' she said after racing yesterday.
Denmark's Anne Marie Rindom claimed a hard fought Laser Radial gold medal following a fourth in the Medal Race.
Rindom trailed overnight leaders Tuula Tenkanen (FIN) and Evi Van Acker (BEL) by two points heading into the final race and was able to advance up to the top of the podium as she explained, "I was in third position and I could become first. I was really nervous, obviously. I was trying not to be but you can't always do that when you have all the adrenaline going on. I tried to stay out of trouble and avoid contact with all other boats and just sail my own race by focusing on my sailing and speed and it turned out really great.
"I saw that the other girls in front of me got a really bad start so from there it was just follow them and make sure they didn't get ahead of me."
Midway through the race Alison Young (GBR) had moved into gold medal position as she took the lead. Rindom had work to do and with Tenkanen and Van Acker struggling behind her she pushed forward. She moved up from seventh to fourth by the conclusion of the race as Young dropped back a spot.
"It's a huge step for me," smiled Rindom. "It's pretty good and a good signal you can sail in the Olympic venue. I think Rio is definitely a hard place to sail. It's so much different to what we're used to in Europe so we're definitely going to have to train here a lot."
Young managed to take silver whilst Van Acker came through in eighth position to hand her bronze. With a ninth place finish Tenkanen dropped from first to fourth overall. Annalise tenth and tenth overall.
After a month of foreign competition – including a stint in the Moth dinghy – Murphy returns to Dublin for a one week break.
