Olympics round-up: Annalise Murphy stars for Team Ireland
It was another good day for Annalise Murphy, who lies in second place in the laser radial competition, just behind the Olympic gold medallist of four years ago Lijia Xu, .
The Chinese sailor has a disqualification from Race 2 however and while that is her discard score, she cannot afford another poor result.
Xu won race 4 this evening, having finished in third but Murphy would have been very pleased herself with fourth- and seventh-placed finishes.
The 26-year-old Dubliner, who finished fourth in London, predicted yesterday that there would be a lot of high scores among the main contenders and she has been proven correct so far.
Indeed, each race has been won by a different sailor to date, with Murphy claiming the honours in Race 1 yesterday.
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
Finn Lynch lies in 24th in the laser category. He started brilliantly in race 3 and though slipping back as it progressed, would have been very satisfied with 15th.
Another top half finish for Finn Lynch, 15th in Race 3 of Men's Laser #Sailing #TeamIreland pic.twitter.com/DVVdZhk8LF
— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) August 9, 2016
Race 4 was a disaster for the 20-year-old from Carlow, where he finished in 40th but he will hope that this will be his discard score as he looks to build a bank of experience for the next Olympic cycle.
Jonty Evans and Cooley Rorkes Drift managed another brilliant clear show jumping round to climb to a brilliant ninth in the individual eventing final this evening at Deodora Olympic Park.
It was an outstanding effort by the oldest member of the Irish Olympic panel at 44 and with his 10-year-old gelding young for this level of competition, he should be a peak performer in Tokyo in four years’ time.
Reigning Olympic champion Michael Jung (GER) retained the title he won in London and is the undisputed number one of eventing, having completed the Grand Slam of eventing at Badminton five months ago.
David Oliver Joyce threw all he could but it wasn’t enough against boxing’s ballet dancer Albert Selimov in their lightweight bout.
The No.2 ranked Selimov put on an exhibition of slipping, moving and landing punches on the retreat as Joyce pushed forward relentlessly.
Joyce suffered a cut to the side of his right eye but it did not have any negative impact as he sought to pressurise the only fighter to have beaten current WBO world champions Vasyl Lomachenko during the Ukrainian’s amateur career.
He just couldn’t get Selimov out of his comfort zone however, and the former world champion from Azerbaijan won the verdict on a unanimous decision.
