Irish sailing's medal hopeful Annalise Murphy is lying fourth overall after her first two races in Rio today.
The National Yacht Club sailor got her Olympic dreams off to a perfect start in an explosive first race. She provided the world with further evidence of her blistering medium to heavy air pace in a cracking first of ten races in the single–handed class.
She opened her account at the 2016 Olympic Games in a very impressive manner, taking the bullet in the first race. Following up with a 14th in race 2, the Rathfarnham sailor made most of the stronger than normal breeze that kicked off the Rio regatta to lie 4th overall after day one.
While the organisation appears to be having some problems with broadcasting the scoring, apologising through the blog for the shortcomings, the conditions in Rio did not fall short with a mean wind speed of 14 knots and gusts up to 18 knots favouring the Escola Naval course, just off the Olympic Marina.
.@Annalise_Murphy crosses the line in 14th in Race 2 of the Women's Laser Radial Class. #Sailing #TeamIreland pic.twitter.com/k3aOeEDEUH
— Team Ireland (@olympiccouncil) August 8, 2016
Murphy clearly enjoyed the above average wind speed, and ends the day bookended by two of the pre-event favourites, Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom in 3rd place and the Belgian Evi Van Acker in 4th. 2012 Gold medallist, Liija Xu of China, leads overall with a 3rd and a 4th, from Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands, another pre-regatta favourite, whose 6th and 5th places put her in 2nd overall.
Murphy's performance will not suprise insiders, only two weeks ago the 25–year–old won in similar conditions in one of the many Rio test events. She has previously said she is one of eight that has the ability to win in Rio. There are 10 races throughout the week before the medal race takes place next Monday, so this is definitely a marathon not a sprint.
While the Radials are not far off following the predictions, the Laser fleet saw some of the favourites having to recover from deep, particularly in Race 1, where pre-regatta favourites, Tom Burton, (AUS), Nick Thompson (GBR) and Robert Scheidt (BRA) were in the twenties for long periods. Scheidt recovered well to win race 2 as did his wife Gintare (LTU) in the radial fleet, overcoming a U flag disqualification in race 1.
Annalise's club–mate 20-year-old Finn Lynch is 21st after his two opening races today. The Carlow man came home in 14th and 27th place.
Racing continues tomorrow for both these fleets, with race numbers 3 and 4 scheduled.