David Branigan - Oceansport / www.oceansport.ie

More bullets for Murphy

Mediterranean conditions come to Dublin Bay for the Laser and Laser Radial European Championships

Tuesday September 3rd 2013, Author: Andi Robertson, Location: Ireland

In conditions more akin to the Mediterranean than Dublin Bay - bright sunshine, warm temperatures and even an unusual sea breeze - Ireland’s local favourite Annalise Murphy remains the only sailor at the Laser European and World Championships to complete the six-race Qualifying Series counting a score line of five race wins.


The change from the offshore, shifty westerly breezes of the first two days might have been welcomed, but in their place was a difficult, at times frustrating, thermal sea breeze which was often riddled with holes and peppered with puffs which still brought significant changes in wind direction. But the change did not seem to worry Murphy who built a significant lead in both of her races for another two winning guns. But as the Final Series now starts - the business end of the championships - she will face much stiffer competition.

Murphy, who is sailing on her home waters, reported: “I’m feeling pretty good. Now it’s gold fleet and it will be very different, much harder with twice as many good people in the fleet. I feel good after these last few days but there are three days to go. I am taking nothing for granted. I am just looking to keep sailing well, to get good starts and hopefully it will work out. I don’t worry about what the weather forecast might bring, they have been wrong the last three days and so there is no point in speculating.”

She goes forward with a lead of seven points over Belgium’s Evi Van Acker, the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist who finished second twice today, whilst the British Sailing Team’s Ali Young and Denmark’s Sarah Gunni are three points further back on 17 points.

Last year’s European Championships runner-up, Sweden’s Jesper Stalheim, goes into the Final Series of the Men’s Olympic class with a lead of two points over Brazil’s Robert Scheidt who he kept behind him twice today as he sailed to a first and a second, with the five times Olympic medallist taking second and third.

Scheidt confirmed again today that he is racing the Laser not through any sense of obligation but because he loves it, and it is his best option at the moment for him to win a sixth medal. “I think this is my only option in terms of an Olympic class. It is a boat I know, I have the experience, easy to start a campaign. The most important thing is I still enjoy sailing the boat. I would not be doing this if I did not enjoy sailing this boat” he smiled in the Dun Laoghaire sunshine this afternoon.

Of his races today he reported: “In the first race I rounded the top mark in 25th and so I was pleased to come back from that. It was pretty difficult with a lot of holes in the breeze. It was very fluky wind, getting up to 16 - 17 knots but then dropping very quickly to four knots. That made the racing very difficult. Also downwind sometimes you were going but sometimes you were stopped. I am happy to have made two results in the top three today. But tomorrow it is like the start of a new regatta. We all start again in the one fleet”.

Although Swede Jesper Stalheim sailed to first and second place finishes, he maintained he had found the conditions confounding at times. “It was a game of luck at times and my luck again seemed to work out” said Stalheim, “There were such big pressure differences. You would go from full hiking to no wind in a matter of seconds and just stop. And people would still be going around you. It feels really good to be sailing well though”.

“The conditions were weird at the last Europeans where I was second. I must be okay at it. But the standard there was not so high (as many sailors were in Weymouth preparing for the Olympics). I feel I am sailing well. I will have to be good from here.”

With a first and a third today Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic is up to third overall. Twice Laser European Champion – in 2010 and 2011 – Stipanovic shares the same raw motivation as Annalise Murphy. He too missed out painfully on an Olympic medal in the Medal Race at Weymouth and Portland just over a year ago.

“It will be difficult as of now. You have to sail well on the first day of the finals, the pressure really is on then. If you don’t it becomes complicated. It is not necessary to win races, just get good results” said Stipanovic.

In the Laser Radial Men’s fleet Ireland’s Fionn Lyden dropped to second after a 20th in the second race today but remains only one point behind Australian leader Tristan Brown. “I got everything wrong” Lyden said later, “I had a reasonable start and thought the wind was going to shift left but it didn’t. I was in the bottom 15 at the first mark but gained about 15 places on the run. I thought it was going to shift left again on the second beat but it didn't. I then gained a few more places on the reach but finished 20th. It was a weird race”.

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Laser standard top 50 results

 

Pos Nat Helm Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Tot Net
1 SWE Stålheim, Jesper 1 1 4 -11 2 1 20 9
2 BRA Scheidt, Robert -4 3 2 1 3 2 15 11
3 CRO Stipanovic, Tonci 3 4 1 -8 3 1 20 12
4 NED Schaardenburg , Rutger 1 1 4 5 2 -6 19 13
5 FRA Bernaz, Jean-Baptiste 4 5 1 -10 1 4 25 15
6 AUS Brunning, Ashley 3 1 1 2 10 -39 56 17
7 NOR Mollatt, Mathias 7 8 -10 3 2 1 31 21
8 GBR Thompson , Nick 5 4 -8 2 7 4 30 22
9 AUS Palk , Ryan 6 5 (43.0 DNC) 1 6 5 66 23
10 CYP Kontides , Pavlos 9 7 -13 4 1 3 37 24
11 GBR Evans , Martin 5 2 2 -27 4 11 51 24
12 CRO Mihelic, Daniel 2 6 5 3 9 -13 38 25
13 NED Heiner, Nicholas 8 3 -11 1 7 7 37 26
14 ITA Marrai, Francesco 1 7 8 -13 7 5 41 28
15 POL Zieminski, Kacper 2 9 3 14 -16 2 46 30
16 ITA Gallo, Marco 5 2 4 15 4 (43.0 DNC) 73 30
17 GBR Mills-barton , Alex 2 5 10 2 -25 13 57 32
18 AUS Wearn, Matthew 9 4 7 -11 5 8 44 33
19 KOR Ha, Jeemin 15 9 3 4 -31 4 66 35
20 CZE Teplý, Viktor 3 -17 6 5 13 8 52 35
21 POR Lima , Gustavo -13 11 3 7 12 3 49 36
22 SWE Cedergardh , Emil 4 9 (43.0 DNF) 6 4 14 80 37
23 AUS West, Jared 6 7 5 -13 8 13 52 39
24 EST Rammo , Karl-martin -12 12 7 3 8 12 54 42
25 ITA Spadoni, Alessio 10 10 13 4 -15 5 57 42
26 RUS Komissarov, Sergey 6 10 15 -20 5 6 62 42
27 NOR Ruth , Kristian 17 3 2 10 11 -21 64 43
28 GBR Chiavarini, Lorenzo Brando 10 -21 6 6 10 15 68 47
29 ITA Coccoluto , Giovanni 11 -37 9 8 11 8 84 47
30 GBR Cornish, Ben 10 6 15 -26 8 9 74 48
31 NZL Saunders, Thomas 12 8 11 7 11 -16 65 49
32 GBR Hanson, Elliot 16 -20 20 9 1 9 75 55
33 CRO Bugarin, Nenad 14 2 14 -20 9 17 76 56
34 CRO Jurisic, Filip 22 -23 6 8 13 7 79 56
35 FIN Tapper, Kaarle 13 14 12 -17 14 6 76 59
36 NED Broekens , Douwe 8 8 -30 13 16 14 89 59
37 NED Hummel , Yuri 14 18 7 5 (43.0 DNC) 16 103 60
38 NOR Tomasgaard, Hermann 20 -24 12 10 6 12 84 60
39 ESP Jesus , Rogel -24 23 10 12 10 7 86 62
40 FRA Munos , Antony 17 15 -30 7 12 12 93 63
41 BEL Van Laer, Wannes 7 -31 5 23 15 20 101 70
42 FIN Lindfors , Mattias -25 16 16 23 5 10 95 70
43 ESP Blanco Albalat, Joaquin 16 13 19 9 14 -23 94 71
44 POL Stelmaszyk , Jonasz 18 14 -21 18 20 3 94 73
45 FRA Naud, Mattis 32 11 -34 9 3 19 108 74
46 SUI Girod , Guillaume 19 -30 9 11 17 18 104 74
47 ITA Strazzera, Enrico -28 18 18 16 15 10 105 77
48 CRO Visic, Toma (43.0 DNC) 27 25 15 9 2 121 78
49 GBR Wetherell, Jack 8 6 18 -30 28 19 109 79
50 DEN Hansen, Michael 11 11 15 12 30 -31 110 79

Laser Radial top 50 results

 

Pos Nat Name Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Tot Net
1 IRL Murphy , Annalise 1 1 -2 1 1 1 7 5
2 BEL Van Acker , Evi 3 -6 1 4 2 2 18 12
3 DEN Gunni , Sarah 2 -6 5 1 1 6 21 15
4 GBR Young , Alison 3 3 -7 3 5 1 22 15
5 NED Bouwmeester , Marit 4 3 -13 2 3 5 30 17
6 FIN Tenkanen , Tuula 2 2 4 -13 8 5 34 21
7 FIN Tenkanen , Heidi 1 1 -10 2 10 9 33 23
8 DEN Rindom, Anne-marie 9 5 -10.5 5 3 3 35.5 25
9 BEL Plasschaert, Emma 5 -14 5 4 6 7 41 27
10 FRA de Kerangat, Mathilde 10 -16 3 7 4 4 44 28
11 GBR Snellgrove, Hannah 11 8 1 -24 4 6 54 30
12 CRO Miheli?, Tina -13 7 3 6 2 12 43 30
13 CAN Bertold, Isabella 5 -15 7 11 7 4 49 34
14 TUR Donertas, Nazli Cagla 6 8 4 9 -12 10 49 37
15 FRA Bolou , Marie 4 10 6 5 14 -25 64 39
16 SWE Olsson, Josefin 7 4 -21 18 9 2 61 40
17 BLR Drozdovskaya , Tatiana 10 2 -20 12 8 8 60 40
18 ESP Cebrian , Alicia 6 7 12 7 -17 12 61 44
19 NOR Enger Eide, Marthe 11 12 14 -17 7 3 64 47
20 NZL Winther, Sara 8 12 -23 8 12 9 72 49
21 GER Fasselt , Lisa 12 11 -40 3 19 11 96 56
22 POL Weinzieher , Anna 9 9 2 26 -27 15 88 61
23 FRA Michon , Pernelle 15 17 10.5 -30 11 10 93.5 63.5
24 GBR Martin, Chloe 12 5 -25 16 22 11 91 66
25 ITA Floridia, Joyce 16 15 6 10 -40 19 106 66
26 FRA Riou, Amélie  8 19 9 -34 16 14 100 66
27 GER Weger, Svenja -18 18 14 15 5 18 88 70
28 LTU Andrulyte, Viktorija 29 11 -34 9 6 16 105 71
29 ITA Zennaro, Silvia 13 9 15 6 28 -33 104 71
30 TUR Kaynar, Pinar 17 16 16 14 -30 8 101 71
31 GER Stolz, Constanze 14 26 9 11 -32 16 108 76
32 USA Dennis , Claire 21 4 19 22 11 -31 108 77
33 POL Czubachowska, Paulina 19 13 12 13 20 -27 104 77
34 NED Van Der Vaart, Daphne 24 10 -30 24 14 7 109 79
35 FIN Mikkola, Monika (48.0 BFD) 21 20 12 15 13 129 81
36 FIN Blässar, Niki 15 17 18 -30 20 17 117 87
37 SIN Yin, Elizabeth -25 25 17 14 13 19 113 88
38 SUI Kivell , Manon 19 -31 28 19 9 17 123 92
39 GER Steinmüller, Chiara 7 23 -27 23 27 14 121 94
40 USA Reineke, Erika 22 22 22 16 -23 15 120 97
41 GER Liebig, Pauline 26 13 21 10 30 -39 139 100
42 GBR Meopham, Ellie 24 -26 19 18 21 18 126 100
43 CZE Audyova , Marketa 28 -34 8 20 17 29 136 102
44 EST Luik, Anne-mari 27 22 13 28 15 -35 140 105
45 ITA Faraguna, Martha 14 19 24 26 26 -36 145 109
46 GER Haverland, Lena 23 -37 36 8 16 28 148 111
47 NZL Pyatt, Susannah 18 14 23 32 -35 26 148 113
48 GBR Massey, Rhiannon 32 21 -39 15 24 22 153 114
49 RUS Vorobeva, Elena 25 20 11 25 34 -38 153 115
50 GBR Pavey, Rheanna 21 24 18 -41 24 29 157 116
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