Reward for months spent preparing for the Rio Olympics over the past four years at the venue itself came in the form of a consistent day for Annalise Murphy that moved her to second overall in the Women’s Single-handed event.

Murphy had earlier been elevated from fourth to third place due to a rejigging of Monday’s results when London 2012 Gold medallist Lijia Xu was disqualified from race two.

The Irish sailor went out to the Ponte course area in a light to moderate southerly breeze that kicked up a light chop but delayed racing.

Murphy placed fourth in the first race even though she had earlier started sailing for the wrong windward mark and she had worked up to second place before getting caught by a windshift on the second lap.

A seventh in the second race was good enough to make the day “a counter” according to team management and her overall standing improved to second overall going into this morning’s next two races in the qualification round.

Meanwhile, China’s Xu had a third and a race win, her second for the series which extends her overall lead by five points.

Second to sixth places are spread by just six points now that the single event discard has come into force.

Meanwhile, Finn Lynch’s Olympic debut continued to exceed expectation yesterday when he sailed with the leading group of boats in his 46-strong class for the first round of the course before eventually slipping to 15th overall.

His second race for the day was his worst, a 40th place which uses his discard as the series reaches it’s midpoint this afternoon ahead of Monday’s medal race for the top ten boats.

A weather front forecast for Wednesday is expected to deliver fresher conditions ahead of Thursday’s rest/reserve day for the two Laser events. Both the skiff events for men and women begin on Friday when all of Ireland’s sailing athletes are expected to be in action.