Murphy continues to dominate
Ireland’s Annalise Murphy put herself firmly in the frame for Olympic sailing gold in the Laser Radial class by stretching her dream start to four straight victories.
The 22-year-old Olympic debutant has shown no signs of letting up but still has six races to come, including a further two tomorrow, before the medal race.
Murphy said: “It can’t get much better than winning the first four races, but there’s still six fleet races left so it’s going to be really tough.
“All of the girls are really good and I think I’ve had a bit of luck and things have gone my way, but that doesn’t always happen in sailing.
“I’m trying not to look at the forecast. We’ve got a forecast guy and he tells us in the morning what’s going to happen.
“I don’t want to think about it too much but if you start speculating on the forecast you’re just going to get obsessed with what could happen.”
Murphy is ranked 11th in the world and has never had a top-five finish in a World Championship.
Elsewhere on the south coast, the 49er team of Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern stand sixth after finishes of 15th and second place, while Star pair Peter O’Leary and David Burrows are also sixth after coming in 11th and 12th today. James Espey is well out of Laser contention after finishes in 39th and 36th place today.
There was rowing disappointment for Ireland at Eton Dorney where Sanita Puspure missed out on a place in the semi-finals of the women’s singles sculls, finishing fourth in her quarter-final today.
Of the equestrian eventing riders that finished outside the medals, the Irish trio of Aoife Clark, Joseph Murphy and Mark Kyle deserved considerable credit.
All three made the 25-rider individual final, with Clark and Master Crusoe finishing seventh, Murphy (Electric Cruise) 14th and Kyle (Coolio) 21st.
The team finished fifth overall, with Germany taking team and individual gold medals.
Chloe Magee bowed out of the badminton after a 16-21 21-18 21-14 defeat at the hands of France’s Pi Hongyan.
The 23-year-old from the Ashbourne club said: “I don’t think I played badly. I never stopped believing I could win. I’m not disappointed with my performance, just with the second half of the third game. At times I was just not consistent.
“I will have to go away and reflect on today. I’m now aiming for the European Championship in two years’ time. I have a long way to go but I think a medal is possible.”
