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Annalise Loses Out on Miami Medal

3rd February 2013
Annalise Loses Out on Miami Medal

#roadtorio – 'A bit disastrously' is how Annalise Murphy describes the outcome of Saturday's three short medal races in Florida where the Irish one time leader of the USA Olympic classes regatta went from first to fourth overall, denying her a place on the podium in her first event on the road to Rio 2016.

'So things didn't go to plan today. Actually they went a bit disastrously...but I had a good week, learned a lot and felt like I really improved, the top Irish sailor concluded last night on her facebook page.

The video above from race organisers shows yesterday's medal race finals with the Laser radial action, inlcuding Annalise's start in the final race at 8:18 on the timeline and some upwinds shots of Annalise at 8:25.

The medal race results were in stark contrast to last Friday when Murphy stormed back to regain the overall lead with two race wins to go in to yesterday's medal races as the top sailor after a week long battle of 13 races in her 29-boat Laser Radial fleet.

Sparkling conditions on Biscayne Bay and 20-knot winds had given Ireland's 'Breeze Queen' the perfect opportunity to strike home her heavy air advantage.

But on Saturday Murphy who celebrated her 23rd birthday on Friday suffered against American rival Paige Railey as winds that had offered up steady breeze of 15-20 knots all week dropped as low as eight knots and were very shifty for the medal race finale.

In the second medal race, Annalise was leading into the finish line but along with a Canadaian sailor received a yellow flag penalty.

Last night there was annoyance expressed in the Irish camp with ISAFs complex new scoring system trialled at Miami for the first time. The contention is that the new system is unfair because Annalise was one of the most consistent throughout the week yet ended up losing out only in the final very short medal race rounds.

It is likely team management will focus now on improving Annalise's performances outside of the big wind conditions in which she clearly dominates.

Railey, the Florida local was outstanding in the medal rounds. The 2012 Olympian and 2006 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year was the most consistent sailor. She won the first two races of the day and placed fourth in race 15. She won by 14 points over World #5 Tuula Tenkanen (FIN), who won silver. Canadian Isabella Bertold secured the bronze medal. She won race 15. Murphy had to make do with scores of 10,16,14 in the double counting, no discardable three medal races pushing her into fourth. The final score in the new format competition is the six race series plus the medal race scores.

Murphy who was racing for Ireland's first ever World Cup win in the Laser Radial class, a feat that would have been a terrific boost on her road to Rio 2016 will get another chance on March 30 at the next round of the ISAF World Cup in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

Eight Olympic class events raced for medals on Saturday's finale of the 2013 ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami. Once again, conditions on the emerald waters of Biscayne Bay mixed with the high level of competition and medal race urgency, allowed these sailors to evaluate their abilities and determine where they rank among the world's best.

Sarah Newberry and John Casey (USA) capped a fantastic regatta in the intriguing Nacra 17 event. For nearly the entire week, Newberry and Casey were at the top of the leaderboard. They were fifth in today's medal race and won the gold medal by five points. Finishing with silver was Sarah Streater and Matthew Whitehead (USA). Taylor Reiss and Sarah Lihan (USA) won bronze.

"Throughout the event we were focused on communication," said Newberry. "What carried us through was communicating about what was happening on the boat immediately on the race course, and in the end the ability to explain the situation. I'm sure at the highest end of sailing, especially when you're a woman and a man you don't always speak the same language."

"It was such a tough medal race. One minute we thought we were dead last and had to crawl back. In the end John told me we won, but I needed a minute to take it in," said Newberry.

Making another serious run at her fifth Olympic Games is Women's 470 sailor Fernanda Oliveira. The Brazilian skipper is a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist. Oliveira and Ana Luiza Barbachuan captured gold here in Miami this week. They finished second in today's medal race and won by 15 points. The Chinese teams performed well in the Women's 470. Xiaoli Wang and Xufeng Huang won the silver medal and Xiaomei Xu and Chunyan Yu will take home bronze.

Like so many Brazilian sailors, Oliveira is eager to compete for Olympic gold in her home country in Rio 2016. "This is different for me because I did four Games, each time with a different crew, but now I'm with the same crew," she explained. "It starts easier for us, but we don't live in Rio, so we need to go there often to train and we have a lot of work to do. It's a difficult place to race and the conditions are special."

Americans Stuart McNay and David Hughes finished strong in the Men's 470 medal race. Their second place result granted them the gold medal. McNay and Hughes won by a five point margin over medal race winners and silver medalists Matthias Schmid and Floran Reichstaedter (AUT). Another Austrian team reached the podium, as David Bargehr and Lucas Maher claimed the bronze.

"The bottom line was that we were trying to stay close to the Austrians today," said McNay. "We got a good start on the pin, but they still had an early lead. Some tacking ensued that drove the action back into the fleet, so we had to fight for our regatta win."

The top six teams in the 49er and 49er FX events advanced to Saturday's respective medal races. The medal races were conducted using a unique format and challenging course. The theater style course included two enclosed parallel lanes approximately 400 meters long and 220 meters wide. The first boat to win two races wins the regatta. Teams entering the medal races with the lead from the fleet series will begin this stage with a win.

In a compelling medal race series, Fred Strammer and Zach Brown (USA) edged Ryan Pesch and Trevor Burd (USA) for the gold medal. Strammer and Brown entered the medal races with a carryover win from their first place fleet racing series. Pesch and Burd finished just ahead of Strammer and Brown to win the first medal race. They finished first and second again in the second medal race, with Strammer and Brown prevailing. Sebastian Ostling and Kalle Torlen (SWE) joined the Americans on the podium as bronze medalists.

The 49er FX medal race series lasted just one race. Fleet series leaders Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze won the first medal race, which put an end to an impressive run this week by the Brazilians. They totaled seven wins this week. Anna Tunnicliffe and Molly Vandemoer were third today and won the silver medal. Finishing second today and earning the bronze was Kristen Lane and Molly Carapiet (USA).

It was a tremendous week for Finn sailor Caleb Paine (USA). He won today's first medal race to seal the gold medal by 14 points. Canadian Greg Douglas won the silver medal and was third today. Jorge Zarif (BRA) finished third overall for bronze. He got off to a great start this week by winning four of his first seven races.

It was a great three-race medal series today for Estonia's Lasor sailor Karl-Martin Rammo who won two of three races and finished second in race 14. However, Sweden's Jesper Stalheim collected gold medal honors. Rammo earned the silver and Charlie Buckingham (USA) garnered bronze medal honors.

"Miami is really shifty," said Stalheim. "There was a bit more breeze in Miami than usual, so there was a lot of hiking. I was super fast on the downwind so that was great. It felt like the last day was super important, maybe a bit too much."

For the final standings, visit the results section of the event website.

Final top three by class

2.4
1. Megan Pascoe, GBR, 18 points
2. Allan Leibel, CAN, 21
3. Bruce Millar, CAN, 22
49er
1. Strammer / Brown, USA, 4.0 points
2. Pesch / Burd, USA, 5.0
3. Oestling / Torlen, SWE, 10.0
470
1. Stuart McNay / David Hughes, USA, 22
2. Matthias Schmid / FLorian Reichstaedter, AUS, 27
3. David Bargehr / Lukas Mahr, AUS, 57
Finn
1. Caleb Paine, USA, 20
2. Greg Douglas, CAN, 34
3. Jorge Zarif, BRA, 43
49er FX
1. Martine Soffiatti / Kahena Kunze, BRA, 2.0
2. Anna Tunnicliffe / Molly Vandemoer, USA, 5.0
3. Kristen Lane / Molly Carapiet, USA, 8.0
Laser
1. Jesper Stalheim, SWE, 46
2. Karl-Martin Rammo, EST, 50
3. Charlie Buckingham, USA, 54
Laser Radial
1. Paige Railey, USA, 20
2. Tuula Tenkanen, FIN, 34
3. Isabella Bertold, CAN, 40
Nacra17
1. Sarah Newberry / John Casey, USA, 22
2. Sarah Streater / Matthew Whitehead, USA, 27
3. Taylor Reiss / Sarah Lihan, USA, 35
RSX Men
1. Ivan Pastor, ESP
2. Nick Dempsey, GBR
3. Dorian Van Rijssbelberghe, NED
RSX Women
1. Maayan Davidovich, ISR
2. Tuuli Petaja-Siren, FIN
3. BLannca Mancon Dominguez, ESP
Sonar
1. Wang-Hansen / Solberg / Kristiansen, NOR, 19
2. Fisher / Hersey / Levinson, USA, 28
3. Doerr / Kendell / Freund, USA, 29

Published in Olympic
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Irish Olympic Sailing Team

Ireland has a proud representation in sailing at the Olympics dating back to 1948. Today there is a modern governing structure surrounding the selection of sailors the Olympic Regatta

Irish Olympic Sailing FAQs

Ireland’s representation in sailing at the Olympics dates back to 1948, when a team consisting of Jimmy Mooney (Firefly), Alf Delany and Hugh Allen (Swallow) competed in that year’s Summer Games in London (sailing off Torquay). Except for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Ireland has sent at least one sailor to every Summer Games since then.

  • 1948 – London (Torquay) — Firefly: Jimmy Mooney; Swallow: Alf Delany, Hugh Allen
  • 1952 – Helsinki — Finn: Alf Delany * 1956 – Melbourne — Finn: J Somers Payne
  • 1960 – Rome — Flying Dutchman: Johnny Hooper, Peter Gray; Dragon: Jimmy Mooney, David Ryder, Robin Benson; Finn: J Somers Payne
  • 1964 – Tokyo — Dragon: Eddie Kelliher, Harry Maguire, Rob Dalton; Finn: Johnny Hooper 
  • 1972 – Munich (Kiel) — Tempest: David Wilkins, Sean Whitaker; Dragon: Robin Hennessy, Harry Byrne, Owen Delany; Finn: Kevin McLaverty; Flying Dutchman: Harold Cudmore, Richard O’Shea
  • 1976 – Montreal (Kingston) — 470: Robert Dix, Peter Dix; Flying Dutchman: Barry O’Neill, Jamie Wilkinson; Tempest: David Wilkins, Derek Jago
  • 1980 – Moscow (Tallinn) — Flying Dutchman: David Wilkins, Jamie Wilkinson (Silver medalists) * 1984 – Los Angeles — Finn: Bill O’Hara
  • 1988 – Seoul (Pusan) — Finn: Bill O’Hara; Flying Dutchman: David Wilkins, Peter Kennedy; 470 (Women): Cathy MacAleavy, Aisling Byrne
  • 1992 – Barcelona — Europe: Denise Lyttle; Flying Dutchman: David Wilkins, Peter Kennedy; Star: Mark Mansfield, Tom McWilliam
  • 1996 – Atlanta (Savannah) — Laser: Mark Lyttle; Europe: Aisling Bowman (Byrne); Finn: John Driscoll; Star: Mark Mansfield, David Burrows; 470 (Women): Denise Lyttle, Louise Cole; Soling: Marshall King, Dan O’Grady, Garrett Connolly
  • 2000 – Sydney — Europe: Maria Coleman; Finn: David Burrows; Star: Mark Mansfield, David O'Brien
  • 2004 – Athens — Europe: Maria Coleman; Finn: David Burrows; Star: Mark Mansfield, Killian Collins; 49er: Tom Fitzpatrick, Fraser Brown; 470: Gerald Owens, Ross Killian; Laser: Rory Fitzpatrick
  • 2008 – Beijing (Qingdao) — Star: Peter O’Leary, Stephen Milne; Finn: Tim Goodbody; Laser Radial: Ciara Peelo; 470: Gerald Owens, Phil Lawton
  • 2012 – London (Weymouth) — Star: Peter O’Leary, David Burrows; 49er: Ryan Seaton, Matt McGovern; Laser Radial: Annalise Murphy; Laser: James Espey; 470: Gerald Owens, Scott Flanigan
  • 2016 – Rio — Laser Radial (Women): Annalise Murphy (Silver medalist); 49er: Ryan Seaton, Matt McGovern; 49erFX: Andrea Brewster, Saskia Tidey; Laser: Finn Lynch; Paralympic Sonar: John Twomey, Ian Costello & Austin O’Carroll

Ireland has won two Olympics medals in sailing events, both silver: David Wilkins, Jamie Wilkinson in the Flying Dutchman at Moscow 1980, and Annalise Murphy in the Laser Radial at Rio 2016.

The current team, as of December 2020, consists of Laser sailors Finn Lynch, Liam Glynn and Ewan McMahon, 49er pairs Ryan Seaton and Seafra Guilfoyle, and Sean Waddilove and Robert Dickson, as well as Laser Radial sailors Annalise Murphy and Aoife Hopkins.

Irish Sailing is the National Governing Body for sailing in Ireland.

Irish Sailing’s Performance division is responsible for selecting and nurturing Olympic contenders as part of its Performance Pathway.

The Performance Pathway is Irish Sailing’s Olympic talent pipeline. The Performance Pathway counts over 70 sailors from 11 years up in its programme.The Performance Pathway is made up of Junior, Youth, Academy, Development and Olympic squads. It provides young, talented and ambitious Irish sailors with opportunities to move up through the ranks from an early age. With up to 100 young athletes training with the Irish Sailing Performance Pathway, every aspect of their performance is planned and closely monitored while strong relationships are simultaneously built with the sailors and their families

Rory Fitzpatrick is the head coach of Irish Sailing Performance. He is a graduate of University College Dublin and was an Athens 2004 Olympian in the Laser class.

The Performance Director of Irish Sailing is James O’Callaghan. Since 2006 James has been responsible for the development and delivery of athlete-focused, coach-led, performance-measured programmes across the Irish Sailing Performance Pathway. A Business & Economics graduate of Trinity College Dublin, he is a Level 3 Qualified Coach and Level 2 Coach Tutor. He has coached at five Olympic Games and numerous European and World Championship events across multiple Olympic classes. He is also a member of the Irish Sailing Foundation board.

Annalise Murphy is by far and away the biggest Irish sailing star. Her fourth in London 2012 when she came so agonisingly close to a bronze medal followed by her superb silver medal performance four years later at Rio won the hearts of Ireland. Murphy is aiming to go one better in Tokyo 2021. 

Under head coach Rory Fitzpatrick, the coaching staff consists of Laser Radial Academy coach Sean Evans, Olympic Laser coach Vasilij Zbogar and 49er team coach Matt McGovern.

The Irish Government provides funding to Irish Sailing. These funds are exclusively for the benefit of the Performance Pathway. However, this falls short of the amount required to fund the Performance Pathway in order to allow Ireland compete at the highest level. As a result the Performance Pathway programme currently receives around €850,000 per annum from Sport Ireland and €150,000 from sponsorship. A further €2 million per annum is needed to have a major impact at the highest level. The Irish Sailing Foundation was established to bridge the financial gap through securing philanthropic donations, corporate giving and sponsorship.

The vision of the Irish Sailing Foundation is to generate the required financial resources for Ireland to scale-up and execute its world-class sailing programme. Irish Sailing works tirelessly to promote sailing in Ireland and abroad and has been successful in securing funding of 1 million euro from Sport Ireland. However, to compete on a par with other nations, a further €2 million is required annually to realise the ambitions of our talented sailors. For this reason, the Irish Sailing Foundation was formed to seek philanthropic donations. Led by a Board of Directors and Head of Development Kathryn Grace, the foundation lads a campaign to bridge the financial gap to provide the Performance Pathway with the funds necessary to increase coaching hours, upgrade equipment and provide world class sport science support to a greater number of high-potential Irish sailors.

The Senior and Academy teams of the Performance Pathway are supported with the provision of a coach, vehicle, coach boat and boats. Even with this level of subsidy there is still a large financial burden on individual families due to travel costs, entry fees and accommodation. There are often compromises made on the amount of days a coach can be hired for and on many occasions it is necessary to opt out of major competitions outside Europe due to cost. Money raised by the Irish Sailing Foundation will go towards increased quality coaching time, world-class equipment, and subsiding entry fees and travel-related costs. It also goes towards broadening the base of talented sailors that can consider campaigning by removing financial hurdles, and the Performance HQ in Dublin to increase efficiency and reduce logistical issues.

The ethos of the Performance Pathway is progression. At each stage international performance benchmarks are utilised to ensure the sailors are meeting expectations set. The size of a sailor will generally dictate which boat they sail. The classes selected on the pathway have been identified as the best feeder classes for progression. Currently the Irish Sailing Performance Pathway consists of the following groups: * Pathway (U15) Optimist and Topper * Youth Academy (U19) Laser 4.7, Laser Radial and 420 * Development Academy (U23) Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX * Team IRL (direct-funded athletes) Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 49erFX

The Irish Sailing performance director produces a detailed annual budget for the programme which is presented to Sport Ireland, Irish Sailing and the Foundation for detailed discussion and analysis of the programme, where each item of expenditure is reviewed and approved. Each year, the performance director drafts a Performance Plan and Budget designed to meet the objectives of Irish Performance Sailing based on an annual review of the Pathway Programmes from Junior to Olympic level. The plan is then presented to the Olympic Steering Group (OSG) where it is independently assessed and the budget is agreed. The OSG closely monitors the delivery of the plan ensuring it meets the agreed strategy, is within budget and in line with operational plans. The performance director communicates on an ongoing basis with the OSG throughout the year, reporting formally on a quarterly basis.

Due to the specialised nature of Performance Sport, Irish Sailing established an expert sub-committee which is referred to as the Olympic Steering Group (OSG). The OSG is chaired by Patrick Coveney and its objective is centred around winning Olympic medals so it oversees the delivery of the Irish Sailing’s Performance plan.

At Junior level (U15) sailors learn not only to be a sailor but also an athlete. They develop the discipline required to keep a training log while undertaking fitness programmes, attending coaching sessions and travelling to competitions. During the winter Regional Squads take place and then in spring the National Squads are selected for Summer Competitions. As sailors move into Youth level (U19) there is an exhaustive selection matrix used when considering a sailor for entry into the Performance Academy. Completion of club training programmes, attendance at the performance seminars, physical suitability and also progress at Junior and Youth competitions are assessed and reviewed. Once invited in to the Performance Academy, sailors are given a six-month trial before a final decision is made on their selection. Sailors in the Academy are very closely monitored and engage in a very well planned out sailing, training and competition programme. There are also defined international benchmarks which these sailors are required to meet by a certain age. Biannual reviews are conducted transparently with the sailors so they know exactly where they are performing well and they are made aware of where they may need to improve before the next review.

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