Dublin sailor Annalise Murphy put together superb back-to-back races at Rio 2016 this evening which saw her cruise into the gold medal position.
The Rathfarnham native began the day with a solid 5th place finish in race 5 which saw her drop back to third place in the overall rankings, behind the Dutch boat of Marit Bouwmeester who moved up to second.
Crucially though, Murphy had closed the gap on the leader from China, Xu Lijia, to just two points.
Race 6 provided some incredible excitement with the Irish sailor battling it out firstly with the Finnish boat for first place around the midway point.
Eventually Murphy and Anne-Marie Rindom of Denmark put some daylight between themselves and Finland before the Dane managed to claim first by just 7 seconds.
However, the result was good enough to see the Dubliner into the gold medal position ahead of a rest day for the competitors tomorrow.
What a competitor! Annalise Murphy finishes the Women's Laser Radial Race 6 in 2nd place. #TeamIreland #Sailing pic.twitter.com/hZMiSEOed4
— Team Ireland (@olympiccouncil) August 10, 2016
They will hit the high seas again on Friday and Saturday for races 7-10 before the top ten boats compete in the medal race on Monday.
Meanwhile, Carlow's Finn Lynch is outside the overall top 20 after finishing in 18th and 27th positions in his two Laser class races today.
SAILING EVENTS EXPLAINER:
For the Olympic classes a regatta consists of a ten race series (15 for the 49er class), where all boats take to the same startline.
Sailors discard their one worst race result (only counting nine races; 14 for the 49er class) and after the initial ten (15) races, the top ten boats in each class move on to a final required and non-discardable 'medal race'.
This counts as double points which are added to their standing score. The sailor with the lowest overall score will win the event.
