London 2012 day 3: Better day for the Brits

Percy extends as Ben pulls up as Ireland's Annalise Murphy gets four straight bullets

Laser Radial

As with the Laser men, the Radial had another double winner today, but with Ireland’s Annalise Murphy taking two more bullets to add to her two yesterday.

Racing on the Portland Harbour course after the Men, Murphy pulled into the lead on the first beat and to the delight of British fans was followed around the top mark by Alison Young. At the end of the first run Young briefly lost second to Mexico’s Tania Elias Calles, but regained it on the second beat as class heavyweights Evi van Acker (BEL) and Marit Bouwmeister (NED) began gunning for the British sailor. But Young hung on for the next two laps to finish second with van Acker third and Bouwmeister fourth.

In the second race, Murphy took a little while longer to get into the lead up the first beat, rounding ahead of Alicia Cebrian (ESP) and China’s Lijia Xu with Young fourth. Young moved up to second on the run and as Cebrian and Xu fought it out for third, a position which remained the same for the rest of the race.

“To win both races again today is a huge achievement,” said Murphy. “I can’t believe I am still doing it. But six races left, so it is going to be a tough rest of the regatta.

This is Murphy’s first Olympics and to have four straight bullets is an unbelievable achievement, but not one that seems to be phasing her. “I feel okay. I have learned to deal with this. You just have to keep racing the same. If you start changing things, that’s when you start to make mistakes.” But really – with four bullets, why would you change anything?

Ali Young was her normal highly focussed self when she came ashore. “Two seconds today – pretty pleased with that. It could have been a little bit better but it was a solid start from which to build the rest of the regatta from. Yesterday my starts weren’t very good. Today they are better so it made life a little bit easier for myself, so just keep learning and improving through the rest of the week.”

Not one to talk much about her sailing, she did let slip: “My downwinds weren’t so great today, so we can look to address that and move forward tomorrow.”

Today’s performance has moved her up to fourth overall being van Acker and Bouwmeister. Of the leader Young said: “Annalise is good in the breeze and she always has been, so I’ve just got to get chipping away.”

Results: