There, it’s done! Annalise Murphy has at last claimed her Olympic medal that she has dedicated more than 10 years of her life to achieve, writes David Branigan for the Irish Examiner.

Every four years, the eyes of the world are fixed on the five-ring Olympic circus. In my sport of sailing, the Games can be the culmination of four, eight or even 12 long years of hard competing.

The expectations of Ireland’s sailors have been raised by Annalise Murphy’s fourth-place finish at the 2012 Olympics but the Irish Sailing Association’s performance director has described medal hopes at Rio next month as an outside shot.

Conor Phelan’s Jump Juice of the Royal Cork Yacht Club goes into action at Howth YC this afternoon as the eight event Irish Cruiser Racing Association National Championships gets underway.

Connacht Kiwi centre Bundee Aki says he was shattered when he heard of the shock death of All Black legend and former clubmate Jonah Lomu on Wednesday.

Check out our guide to what to watch on TV tonight.

A retired former Chelsea footballer has won £5.5 million (€7.6m) on the Lotto.

GAME OF THRONES star EMILIA CLARKE has revealed why she has been hobbling about on crutches — she simply slipped. The actress — Daenerys Targaryen in the hit HBO show — has been pictured sporting some kind of leg injury.

Nigel Winterburn’s simplistic approach to cone-running. Pat Rice gets mad. David Seaman is fussy.

VISITORS to modern day Waterloo may struggle to follow the topography of one of the most important military encounters in European history. In particular, an enormous earthwork, the Lion’s Mound, erected 1820, has significantly altered the perspective, writes Allan Prosser.

North Korea:

Storms, high tides and gale-force winds have left a trail of devastation around the UK, with warnings that conditions are set to worsen over the weekend.

Just over a year after Dun Laoghaire’s Annalise Murphy spectacularly missed winning a medal at the London 2012 Olympics, she sailed in from her home waters to rapturous applause at the National Yacht Club as the new European champion for her Laser Radial class.

The National Lottery in the UK is on the hunt for 12 missing millionaires after 100 winners were drawn from a single EuroMillions draw.

Less than a year after the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Irish Sailing Association yesterday announced a title sponsor for the high-performance squad currently preparing for the next Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro.

Royal Yachting Association Olympic manager Stephen Park says the death of Andrew Simpson has been like losing a family member, with the news leaving the British sailing team feeling “broken”.

The Irish Sailing Association believe a “malicious campaign” against sailor Peter O’Leary cost the country a medal at the Olympic Games.

There have been mixed results for Irish athletes so far on the eighth day of the Paralympic games with Boccia hopeful Johnny Cronin unsuccessful in his bid, and cyclist Colin Lynch marked as DNF (Did Not Finish).

The Lord Mayor of Cork has announced a major review of the city’s sporting facilities to see what can be done to help the next generation of Irish Olympic athletes.

The body of a four-year-old boy who slipped from a jetty is believed to have been washed out to sea after specialist sonar equipment failed to find him, experts said today.

Firefighters in Britain were called into action after a man set his flat alight by microwaving his socks and pants.

Having spent her career dominating a discipline inexplicably isolated by the Olympics, Katie Taylor has guaranteed herself a prize from the pantheon of sport.

An hour before Katie Taylor edged closer to an Olympic dream in the Excel Arena, another Irish woman’s medal hopes were blown out over 144 miles away.

The absence of yachts from Dublin Bay on a bank holiday Monday in August was the first sign that it was no ordinary day for Ireland’s sailing community.

Annalise Murphy has just missed out on an Olympic medal in today’s Medal Race in the Laser Radial Class.

Disappointment added to disappointment for the beleaguered Irish Star duo of Peter O’Leary and David Burrows.

Great Britain’s Ben Ainslie became the most successful sailor in Olympic history after today securing a fourth successive gold medal.

Annalise Murphy is in for a tense medal race in the Women's Laser Radial class on Monday as she finished in seventh in the second race of the day at Weymouth.

One of Ireland’s top athletics chiefs admits to having concerns about Derval O’Rourke’s readiness for the Olympic Games following a betting scandal involving boyfriend Peter O’Leary.

Dublin's Annalise Murphy has lost top spot in the women's Laser Radial sailing event after her two races today at Weymouth.

Ireland’s Peter O’Leary and David Burrows needed a strong start to the second half of their Olympic regatta off Weymouth, but instead find themselves fighting to stay inside the top 10 after being disqualified from their first race.

Team Ireland continued the good work at Weymouth today in their hunt for Olympic medals.

In breezes which were lighter than forecast, Annalise Murphy may have had her bubble of supremacy pricked but the Irish sailor still leads the Laser Radial class at the 2012 Olympic regatta off Weymouth and Portland in Dorset.

Annalise Murphy continues to lead the standings in the Women's Laser Radial class, despite struggling with the more variable conditions today in Weymouth.

Olympic Games chiefs insisted that they had no regrets over dubbing London 2012 the “social media Olympics”, despite two athletes being expelled over remarks made on Twitter, a British teenager being arrested for abusing an athlete, and winning athletes warning that using social media would have disrupted their preparations.

Ireland's Olympians are producing some phenomenal performances today at London 2012.

Dublin's Annalise Murphy has won her opening race of the Olympics.

Ireland’s Ryan Seaton and Matthew McGovern impressed and finished fourth in today's 49er class sailing at Weymouth.

By Joe Finegan