The Rio Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy took to the water for her third day of sailing in Fujisawa this morning
Ireland’s Murphy came into this race with her chances of grabbing another Olympic medal very low after the Rathfarnham sailor scored a 24th and discarded a 37th the last morning.
The weather had calmed drastically since the typhoon that hit Japan’s coast earlier in the day but was still very challenging.
The competitors faced 13 knot of of wind in 25 degree heat with 72 percent humidity but Murphy looked unfazed.
Brief explainer feat Annalise’s favourite Labrador – sailing is a hard mental sport & Annalise is on the wrong side of confident at the moment – she’s not out of it yet but she’ll need to bring a really strong performance to the next 6 races to shoot for a medal – we believe 🙏 pic.twitter.com/46RlJF666v
— Annalise Murphy (@Annalise_Murphy) July 26, 2021
As the race five began, she went hard knowing she needed to pick up some positions in these two races if she wanted any chance of silverware in Tokyo.
The Irish sailor turned on her class finishing the fifth race scored all the way at ninth. This was a vast improvement of her previous days sailing.
The 31-year-old tried to maintain that position in the sixth race following shortly after. She dropped slightly into 10th but have still left herself in an alright place for the fourth day of racing.
Wooo! A 10th in race 6 – these conditions are super tricky and we’re going to see a LOT of movement on the leaderboard – Annalise sailed 2 great races today and if she keeps improving like this she’ll be well set for the last 4 races of the series! Now bedtime + full update later pic.twitter.com/YJ9XOYhLVd
— Annalise Murphy (@Annalise_Murphy) July 27, 2021
She is currently ranked 20th overall but with four races to go, this could still change a bit. This morning was already a major improvement of her rank of 31st before today.
She will need to break into the top ten in rankings if she wants to be a part of the medal race.
Switzerland’s Maud Jayet won the sixth race with a quick, stellar performance. The 25-year-old is turning heads at her first Olympic Games and has made herself one of the favourites for the competition.
The Laser Radial women’s race seven in Fujisawa will take place at 04:15 on Thursday 29th July shortly followed by race eight.
The final day of sailing will take place on the morning of Friday 30th July.
