Another great day of sailing for Annalise Murphy.
Murphy got off to the perfect start on her first day, winning her first race before finishing 14th place her second which saw her end up fourth in the women’s laser radial overall rankings. However, reigning Olympic gold medalist Lijia Xu’s disqualification from the second race saw the Dubliner get bumped up to third spot heading into race three.
She continued her great form by finishing fourth in the third race in a time of 46:43 with Hungary’s Marti Erdi winning the third race. Her fourth place finish saw Murphy climb to second in the overall rankings, behind Belgium’s Evi van Acker who just pipped Murphy to the bronze medal in London four years ago.
4th for @Annalise_Murphy in Women's Laser Radial Race 3 💪🏻 Race 4 to follow. #Sailing #TeamIreland pic.twitter.com/FDe9LFxL6T
— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) August 9, 2016
Race four was a real epic. Murphy broke away from the pack early on to take second spot and briefly held the lead. She took a big hit and fell back to seventh but sailed hard down wind to make sure that she didn’t drop back any further.
She crossed the line in seventh place, which saw her move up into second place overall, five points behind leader Xu.
7th place in 4/10 races sees #TeamIreland's @Annalise_Murphy sitting 2nd overall in Women's Laser Radial. #Sailing pic.twitter.com/5FfpjDuwJn
— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) August 9, 2016
However, there’s still a long way to go in the this event. We’re only through four of ten races before the medals race which is set to take place next Monday.
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