The National Yacht Club’s Annalise Murphy held her lead over the 41-boat fleet to claim the Laser Radial open class title in the final racing of Italian Olympic Week at Follonica.

Murphy’s third place finish yesterday (Sunday 20 September) was enough to maintain the points gap over Italy’s Silvia Zennaro, with Norway’s Line-Flem Höst third in the provisional overall table.

The result will be a significant boost Murphy’s delayed Laser Radial campaign, although many of her key rivals for Tokyo 2020 gold next year did not contest the Italian championships. Next up are the European Championships in Gdansk two weeks from tomorrow.

Meanwhile, despite their early exit to get home to Ireland before new ‘green list’ restrictions came unto force, Ewan McMahon and Finn Lynch both finished in the top 10 in the Laser standard class, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

Rio Olympic silver medalist Annalise Murphy continues her preparations for Tokyo 2021 with an overall lead at the Italian Olympic Classes Championships at Follonica. 

In a 41-boat Laser Radial fleet, the Irish star remains at the top of the leaderboard on six points after the penultimate day's racing was cancelled due to lack of wind. The National Yacht Club solo sailor leads Italian Silvia Zennaro. Third overall is the Norwegian Host Lineflen. Many of Murphy's key rivals for Olympic Gold next year are not contesting the Italian championships.

After a long day at sea to try and complete at least one race, the wait was in vain and racing was officially abandoned at 5 pm this evening. 

A strong scirocco wind is expected for tomorrow's final three races, conditions in which Ireland's 'Breeze Queen' has proved unstoppable so many times before.

As Afloat reported previously, Murphy is on her way to the European Championships in Poland in early October having finished 14th at Kiel Week in Germany last week.

There was no further improvement for Irish sailing star Annalise Murphy after her special run of three race wins in the women's Laser Radial class in strong winds last Friday at Kieler Woche Regatta.

As Afloat reported previously, Ireland's Olympic silver medalist started the German regatta poorly but hauled herself back up the rankings to be tenth overall going into the final two races but, a 22 and 36 then scored were non-discardable because of an opening race disqualification.

Overall, it meant the only Irish sailor so far qualified for Tokyo 2021 finished in the top 30% of her fleet; 14th from 46 on the Baltic Sea. 

Kiel Week 2020 marked a return to international competition for the solo sailor after the COVID hiatus and the National Yacht Club ace is now heading to Poland for the European Championships in the first week of October, an event Murphy famously won on her home waters of Dublin Bay in 2013.

With four race wins from nine sailed so far, Annalise Murphy, Ireland’s only sailor qualified for Tokyo 2021, might have been expecting a better overall placing than a tenth at Kiel week in Germany this week. 

However, the scoresheet speaks for itself and Murphy got off to a less than satisfactory start to the German warm-up event when she was disqualified in the opening race under the black flag premature starting rule. Unfortunately, the Irish ace then also counted a 33 and 22 in the following races in the 46-boat fleet.

Murphy made up for this opening blip though in subsequent racing with a storming day yesterday talking three bullets in races seven, eight and nine.

Such inconsistency, however, is not affecting her main rival for Gold in Tokyo 2021, with Rio Gold medalist Marit Boumeester of the Netherlands counting eight top ten results. 

"It is the first regatta since the World Championship in February.” The Dutch Olympic star says she is not yet sure about her current form: “Kiel Week is the warm-up for the European Championship in October. I hope for a medal there, but of course, we are lacking in preparation.”

After Kiel, the Laser Radial fleet, including Murphy, will travel to Gdansk, Poland for more training and preparation before the European Championships starting on 6 October. 

Results are here

Annalise Murphy, Ireland's only qualified sailor for Tokyo 2021, is entered for this week's Kiel Week. The massive German Regatta marks her return to international competition since the outbreak of COVID.

Regular Afloat readers will know that the Olympic programme was thrown into disarray in March when important European Olympic qualifiers were cancelled during the Pandemic.

Now, with the resumption of competition, it is more than clear there is pent up demand with both the quantity and quality of fleets signed up to race on the Baltic Sea.

This is more than evident in Murphy's red hot Laser Radial fleet gathering in Kiel.

The complete top ten of the World Championships 2020 (where Murphy finished 12th) in the Olympic one-handed class for women is on the starting line. Also the three medal winners from Rio Olympics.

Foremost the Olympic champion of 2016 and reigning world champion Marit Bouwmeester from the Netherlands. As at the World Championships in Australia earlier this year, Bouwmeester will meet her compatriot and World Championship runner-up Maxime Jonker, the Norwegian Line Flem Höst, and Anne-Marie Rindom from Denmark. The Dane won the Kieler Woche in 2018 and won the bronze medal ahead of Brazil at the Olympic Games.

Also, last year's winner of Kieler Woche and Olympic and World Championship 6th, Josefin Olsson from Sweden, is certainly among the candidates for the Kieler Woche victory.

As well as Ireland's 2016 silver medalist, the Olympic fifth-placed from Finland Tuula Tenkanen completes the field of favourites.

After Kiel, Murphy will travel to Gdansk, Poland for more training and preparation before the European Championships starting on 6 October.

Olympic Silver Medallist Annalise Murphy took a break from her training routine towards the 2021 Olympics this (Wednesday) morning when she hopped into her sponsored Mercedes SUV to see the successful COVID-compliant Junior set up put together by Hugh Gill and his training team at Sutton Dinghy Club.

With the enforced delayed start to the season, and the limitations even when you can sail, Hugh and his colleagues reckoned that user-friendly one-week open introductory courses for young people would best fit the bill, and his hunch has been proven totally right.

With Sutton Dinghy Club's location in the heart of a thriving coastal suburban area, there's an abundance of young families with children in the district just itching to break free from lockdown and get afloat under helpful supervision as soon as possible. Demand among members and from the neighbourhood was such that places on the courses became locally known as the Gold Ticket, so much so that some parents who managed to secure one or two for their kids thought it best to keep quiet about it. 

Even social distancing doesn't eliminate the stardust – Annalise with (left to right) SDC Senior Instructor Matthew Cotter, and trainees Pauline Knief, Juliette Weston, Lien Johnston, and Marina McMahon

But keeping quiet has not been the mood of the moment around the club since the courses got up to top speed, as there's a lot of pent-up energy to be burnt off, and the fact that in many cases it's recruiting newcomers to sailing is a bonus.

Annalise arrived bang on time at 10.30 and had her temperature taken by Clodagh O'Brien and recorded by Caoimhe Fleming, two of the team's designated Young Assistants, and then she walked into the boat park to a welcoming cheer from a group comfortably within the permitted 200 limit, but nevertheless there were well over 100 people including 80 trainees, instructors and other junior members and parents.

These regulations are serious business – Annalise with SDC Vice Commodore Ciara O'Tiarnaigh.

Trainees were in their pods with their instructors, while numbers control ensured that all others were social-distancing. After being welcomed by Ciara O'Tiarnaigh, SDC Vice-Commodore, Annalise then explained how she, as a young girl sailing an Oppie in Dun Laoghaire, went on to become an Olympic Silver Medalist – it was a spellbinding talk which had the kids enraptured.

She then did 20 questions which the young sailors had prepared in advance, covering her diet, favourite brand of sailing bootees, her feelings and emotions, her training regime, her sponsors, which brand of butter she preferred, and what she had for breakfast this morning……

Keeping the trainees in their approved pods was one of the challenges of the morning

Then came the big surprise. Looking across the dinghy park, Annalise saw that there - there rigged and ready to sail - was her old training Laser that she used when training in Rio de Janeiro when she won her Silver Medal. It is now owned by young Joe Doherty, an SDC Instructor who's walking tall, for as of this morning he has Annalise's autograph on his boat.

The memories cascaded on both sides as Annalise recalled racing in the annual Schools Championship at Sutton in 2002/3, and she also raced there in the Crosbie Cup in the Optimists. She was completely at ease with the young sailors as she displayed her Silver Medal and talked to each group of trainees and their instructor.

It was an inspirational morning, and she left Sutton Dinghy Club sailors with the thought that each and every one of them could some day become a champion sailor. That said, she left with the reminder that it's a tough road to follow, for she'd outlined her gruelling keep-fit routine, and departed with the information that after a morning off, she felt doubly obliged to put in a long afternoon's training session under sail in her Laser from Dun Laoghaire.

Annalise Murphy signs her 2016 Olympic Training Laser at Sutton DC for owner Joe Doherty, with Peter Boyle and Jane Hunter. All photos Andy Johnston & Conor Clarke

As for the team at Sutton Dinghy Club, the morning brought a real highlight into a busy programme which has seen the club more lively than ever before during weekdays, an unexpected but very welcome outcome in the aftermath of Lockdown.

But the present healthy situation in Sutton didn't arrive by simply waving a wand. As Hugh Gill reveals, a lot of thought and effort has been going into this eventually buoyant response to the COVID crisis since early May, and the Sutton plan is based on 12 basic principles.

A provisional plan was drafted back in early May, and was developed in consultation with a Medical Specialist in Infectious Diseases. Irish Sailing were advised of the SDC intentions, which they approved on paper, and then three days after the first course had been initiated and settled into full action, Irish Sailing's Training Development Officer Dave Garvey inspected the functioning setup, and gave it full official approval.

A fascinating place to learn to sail – the constantly changing and very tidal coastline at Sutton (Dinghy Club is centre of photo) is a waterborne playground for learner sailors

Many other clubs throughout the country have been working to meet similar challenges, but sailing adults without kids in the household may well be unaware of just how much effort is being put into helping the next generations afloat, and the Sutton Dinghy Club template is a useful example, with the setup being based on those 12 principals:

1. All Instructors complete a Return to Work COVID-Related questionnaire
2. In the week preceding the Course, all trainees' parents receive a COVID-Related Pre-Sailing Course Questionnaire to determine their health status, and if they have returned to Ireland from abroad in the past 14 days.
3. One-Way system installed and clearly signed through Clubhouse
4.  Significant and effective number of Advice Notices on Staying Healthy and Social Distancing posted in and around the Clubhouse
5. Wall hand sanitisers installed at each access and exit point
6. All staff, instructors and trainees are temperature checked each morning.
7. All Instructor Teams get immune-boosting doses of Vitamin C each morning
8. All trainees arrive in their sailing gear and go home in their gear. No changing facilities at the club.
9. Only access to clubhouse is for toilets and Tuck Shop, with a maximum of two at a time. As those who have taken part will know, the Tuck Shop is one of the highlights of the Sutton Dinghy Club Sailing Courses.
10. Each instructor operates for the week within a pod of their own trainees, with no crossover between pods
11. Those trainees who require wetsuits get them for the week and return them on Fridays, when they are duly sanitised and left ready for the following week.
12. An ongoing daily sanitising routine for all touched surfaces at the clubhouse is rigorously enforced

Hugh Gill has reached an encouraging conclusion which is reflected at several other clubs in Ireland: 

"Club fleets generally see cycles of popularity, and currently at Sutton we have quite a group of young sailors who have emerged from basic courses to now own Toppers and Lasers, and they are turning out for club racing and training regularly. These are the future of our sport, and hopefully, they'll be further inspired by Annalise's visit to become the champions of tomorrow - like so many members of SDC before them."

Ireland's Tokyo 2021 representative Annalise Murphy is set to rejoin the national Laser dinghy racing scene after a seven-year hiatus when she sails next week at the 2020 Laser national championships at Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The Rio Olympic silver medalist makes her return in Cork Harbour, the same venue she last sailed at a nationals in 2013, months before her European title win on her home waters at Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

Murphy is not the only Irish Olympic campaigner competing either as the battle for National honours heats up at Crosshaven from August 20th to 23rd.

As Afloat reported previously, due to COVID-19, the three fleet 2020 championships, one of the biggest dinghy events of the 2020 calendar, will now be split between two venues in the Harbour and be run separately.

The National Yacht Club ace will confront Aoife Hopkins and Eve McMahon, both unsuccessful rivals in the controversially cut-short trial for Tokyo 2021 who will also be competing in a mixed Radial fleet of 60 plus sailors. There is no entry – so far – however for Lough Derg's Aisling Keller, another 2021 trialist and the 2018 Irish champion who secured Ireland's berth for Tokyo.

Murphy's clubmate, Rio rep Finn Lynch, who is still bidding for a Tokyo nomination in the men's class will be in action in the 30-boat standard rig division as are other 2021 trialists Ewan McMahon of Howth and Belfast Lough's Liam Glynn.

The entry list is here

Annalise Murphy's bid for Tokyo Gold got a boost today with the Olympic Federation of Ireland announcement of details of its 2020 discretionary funding packages and sailing rewarded with the biggest handout.

The Olympic silver medalist from Rio is the only Irish sailor so far qualified for the postponed Games with men's Irish Laser and 49er skiff campaigns both looking for the last of the Olympic berths.

Murphy was nominated for the Radial class after a trial was cut short by the Irish Sailing Association in June.

The €80,000 announced today provides support for eight Olympic focused and development projects. Many sports had already exceeded the two-award cap placed on this Olympic cycle, making the number of applicants for this latest tranche of funding smaller than previous rounds.

Two winter-sports were awarded grants, reflecting the growing proximity of Beijing 2022.

The funding is entirely generated thanks to the support of commercial partners, primary sponsor, FBD, and OFI partners, Indeed and Circle K. The funding is designed to leverage and enhance Sport Ireland funding, helping National Federations to deliver new performance-related initiatives to support their athletes.

The OFI’s discretionary funding stream is separate to Olympic Solidarity grants to member federations and the 12 Tokyo and 7 Beijing athlete scholarship awards.

Today’s awards were made following the decision of the discretionary funding committee, chaired by OFI CEO, Peter Sherrard and composed of Tokyo Chef de Mission, Tricia Heberle, Sport Ireland High-Performance Director, Paul McDermott, and Independent consultant, Brian MacNeice of Kotinos Partners.

• Bobsleigh and Skeleton €10,000
• Canoeing Ireland €10,000
• Ice Hockey €10,000
• Boxing €10,000
• Gymnastics €10,000
• Modern Pentathlon €10,000
• Volleyball € 8,000
• Sailing €12,000

Peter Sherrard, CEO of the Olympic Federation of Ireland welcomed today’s allocation,

“Since June 2018, we have made 46 sperate grant awards to our member federations under the OFI discretionary funding programme, which is made possible thanks to commercial revenues from our sponsors. Their support and this funding is vital in helping athletes and performance directors realise a wide range of extremely worthy projects, delivering tangible performance and developmental benefits for the athletes.

“As we close out on this first run of the programme in 2020, our objective is to enhance and expand it the for the next four-year period leading up to Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024. This objective is made all the more important due to the difficulties being faced our sports during the Covid 19 pandemic.”

What’s behind your Olympic dream? That’s the question that the Olympic Federation of Ireland asked Olympic silver medalist Annalise Murphy in this video (below) to celebrate Olympic Day today.

Irish Sailing nominated Murphy for Tokyo 2021 this month and Ireland's only sailor so far for Enoshima Bay gives her story as to when the seed of belief was sown, that moment when her dream became more real, and that someone who stoked the fire. 

To launch the campaign five Team Ireland Olympic Medallists share what was behind their Olympic dream. Olympic Champions Ronnie Delany (Melbourne 1956, Athletics 1500m) and Michael Carruth (Barcelona 1992, Welterweight Boxing) are joined by Olympic Silver Medallists John Treacy (Los Angeles 1984, Athletics Marathon), Kenneth Egan (Beijing 2008, Light Heavyweight Boxing) and Annalise Murphy (Rio 2016, Laser Radial) to share their stories.

Michael Carruth’s father, Austin, was the man in his corner throughout his boxing career, and is the person who inspired him to aspire for Olympic success from an early age, “I won my first fight and I gave my dad a big hug and I made a promise to my dad, I said I’m going to win the Olympics, for you first, and for Ireland second.”

Ronnie Delany’s coach Jumbo Elliott helped him make his career-defining decision to switch to the 1500m, “The person who made the most difference was Jumbo Elliott. He paternally put an arm around my shoulder and said son, some day you will be a great miler. Now I had never run a mile at this stage. He said Ronnie run a mile when you get home.”

Throughout the day Olympians and elite athletes will be sharing the stories behind their dreams on social media using the hashtags #TeamIreland, #OlympicDay and #BehindTheDreams.

The news that Ireland’s 2016 Rio Olympics silver medal-winner, sailor Annalise Murphy, has been nominated to represent Ireland in the Laser Radial class at the forthcoming 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo has been warmly welcomed by Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles sales manager, Fergus Conheady and colleagues.

Remembered for supporting preparations by the young Irish sailor in the years leading up to her success in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics – an arrangement that saw Mercedes-Benz in Ireland secure its position as the only vehicle manufacturer supporting her bid for Olympic glory – the company renewed their backing for Annalise last year, ahead of what Fergus Conheady hopes will be another medal-winning performance when the Games are held again next year.

Supplied with a new, top-of-the-range X-Class pickup under a renewed sponsorship arrangement, this latest support from Mercedes-Benz will, Fergus Conheady hopes, “provide the platform for another medal-winning performance by Annalise”. Fitted out with features fit for an Olympic star, the 190hp X-Class is equipped to tow her Laser Radial to events, here and overseas and is finished in the now familiar yet eye-catching Kabara black, silver and grey livery similar to that on her previous Mercedes-Benz Vito Mixto van.