Olympic Sailing:Annalise Murphy could not have dreamed of a better start to her debut Olympic campaign, the 22-year-old winning both her opening two races as she dominated the fleet in Weymouth. Racing in the Laser Radial class, Murphy is the sailor to catch after the first day of racing.
The Dubliner had based herself in Weymouth to prepare for these Games, training full-time for the last three years, and all that hard work paid off on the south coast of England this afternoon. The first race was a tight affair, with Muprhy pushed all the way by Lithuania’s Gintare Scheidt before moving clear after the final mark to win by 15 seconds.
With the wind in her sails, Murphy chased down Evi Van Acker of Belgium from the gun in the second race, overtaking her at the third mark and going on to score an emphatic win by 45 seconds. Murphy is back in the water tomorrow afternoon for the next two races in the 10-race series.
"I am delighted with today but it’s only the first day,” Murphy said afterwards. “There is a lot of racing ahead. I had a good start and tacked across the beat and pulled away. It was great. I couldn't do much wrong today. I have got brilliant upwind speed. It's all coming together."
On an encouraging afternoon for the Irish team, Ryan Seaton and Matthew McGovern impressed with a fourth place in the opening race of the 49ers. The Belfast pair were eighth in the second race to lie in sixth overall. It was a different story, unfortunately, for James Espey (Laser), who lies 42nd in the overall standings.
Peter O'Leary and David Burrows dropped from second spot to fifth in the overall rankings of their Star class regatta after today's two races.
Their fall was due to a 14th place finish in the first of the two races, but a fifth in the second outing improved their score after four races.