Murphy comes so close to sailing medal
Annalise Murphy has just missed out on an Olympic medal in today’s Medal Race in the Laser Radial Class.
Despite registering Irish sailing's best Olympic performance since 1980, Murphy was forced to settle for fifth place in the final and fourth overall, just outside the medals.
The Dun Laoghaire-based sailor started the day in joint third overall, well in contention for a podium finish.
She needed to finish ahead of Lijia Xu from China, Marit Bouwmeester from the Netherlands and Evi van Acker from Belgium to get a medal at Weymouth, but ended up finishing just behind them all.
The Chinese sailor Xu, led the race all the way and was a comfrotable winner in the end, but Murphy battled it out with Bouwmeester and van Acker for the remaining two medal spots.
However, it seemed that the course's downwind leg didn't suit Murphy as she finished the first downwind leg in ninth after rounding the previous mark in first.
The third mark saw Murphy come up the field again to claim second place, and she fared a little better than her previous downwind leg as she came to the fourth mark in fourth, just behind Bouwmeester.
She maintained that position at the next mark with Belgium's van Acker lurking just behind her, but the final leg saw the Dublin sailor going from third down to fifth as she was caught by van Acker and Great Britain's Alison Young at the death to leave her out of the medal spots.
