Ward was unlucky to receive two public warnings, as his Ecuadorian opponent Andres Carles Mina grabbed and spoiled at every opportunity, but the 22-year-old allowed himself to be drawn into the mire, rather than imposing his superior skills.

He took the first round 2-1 and it was surprising that a judge voted in Mina’s favour in the opener but it went downhill from there and Ward’s workrate was never at the required level against a tricky opponent.

Sailing

Annalise Murphy is relishing the very testing conditions on the Copacabana, with winds reaching 22 knots on occasion today, and remarkably, despite having to stave off seaksickness, ended the day looking down at the rest of the field.

She displayed tremendous consistency and mental strength to cope with all the challenges at Marina da Glória.

In Race 5, the 26-year-old was just edged out of fourth late on but would not have been too disappointed with that.

It got even better in Race 6, as she finished second behind the 2015 world champion Anne-Marie Rindom of Denmark.

It is indicative of the competitiveness of the field and also the vagaries of the conditions that Rindom was the sixth different winner in those six races, starting with Murphy in the opener.

In that context, consistency is the key and at present, Murphy’s worst score for a discard is 13th, while Rindom and defending champion Lijia Xu of China have both had disqualifications and thus cannot afford anymore finishes outside the top 10.

Annalise finished in 2nd!! Pulling her into 1st place overall heading into the rest day!! #COYGIG #TeamIreland

— Annalise Murphy (@Annalise_Murphy) August 10, 2016

Tomorrow is a rest day but it is all to play for with just two points between Murphy at the top of the table and third-placed Marit Bouwmeester, with Rindom splitting them in third.

“It was really cool conditions, big waves, a lot of wind, not what I’ve been preparing for in Rio” Murphy said afterwards. “I’ve been preparing for a light-wind regatta so to get a day like that, it was awesome. It was pretty difficult but a lot of fun.

“It was difficult out there, the waves were so big. I get seasick so I put seasickness bands on my wrist to stop me getting sick. It was fun.

“I made a few mistakes in the first race which put me behind but overall I’m happy with how I’m racing and still being consistent.

“I’m pretty happy with how I am overall but there’s still four more races to go and then the medal race and anything can happen.

“I was in this position in London as well and it didn’t end out the way I wanted it to so I think I need to stick to the processes and what I’ve been doing so far because that’s been working. Hopefully in two days’ time I’ll be in the mix to get a medal.”

Unsurprinsingly, she maintains that the London experience, when she led for most of the regatta before finishing an agonising fourth, has stood to her.

“It’s helped me a lot. I’m a lot more relaxed about it. I’m just trying to enjoy the whole experience and not get stressed out about results. I know I have to have a lot of good races and not mess up one day

“I’m having a good time and not too worried about the overall result, just looking at every day and trying to do the right things each day.”

Finn Lynch is the youngest sailor ever to represent Ireland at the Olympics, and coming from one of the most untraditional sailing backgrounds in Bennekerry, Co Carlow, his story is of a Cinderella nature.

He is a huge prospect as a former silver medallist at the world youth championship and had been targeting Tokyo, but when James Espey won the laser spot for Ireland, the 20-year-old beat off the London veteran and Fionn Lyden in the nomination trials to make the flight to Brazil.

It has been a valuable learning curve for Lynch and he has maintained his very creditable spot in the top half of the fleet, lying in 24th after finishes of 18th and 27th in Races 5 and 6.

Rowing

Meanwhile, the O’Donovan brothers Gary and Paul, who would also hold prospects of a podium finish in rowing, were kept on shore for the second time this week due to adverse weather conditions and along with Sinead Jennings and Claire Lambe, will compete in their semi-finals tomorrow.

Swimming

Fiona Doyle has done herself proud already, in the pool and out of it, doing her sport and all sport a service by railing against the disgusting absolving of decision-making by the IOC, and more disgraceful call by FINA to ignore serial dopers and products of a proven serial doping environment.

She was back for the 200m breaststroke and flew through the opening 100m and led up to 150m before tiring visibly and recording a time of 2.29.76 that earned her second in the heat but was more than two seconds outside her best time.

In fact it was more than three seconds off the semi-final and she finished in 25th position, an effort that left the Limerick woman utterly bemused after her strong showing earlier in the week, when she would have made the 100m semi-finals but for the presence of the controversial Russian, Yuliya Efimova.