O’Leary misses out on Weymouth medal final

PETER O’LEARY’S hopes reaching the medal race final at Weymouth were ended yesterday when he and David Burrows finished the Star class series in 12th overall after a disappointing day. Annalise Murphy won her penultimate race in the Laser Radial and begins the medal race in third overall this morning.

O’Leary and Burrows began yesterday ninth overall but were soon under pressure when they were amongst eight boats disqualified under the Black Flag rule to prevent premature starts.

The eight included top sailors such as the legendary Brazilian Robert Scheidt, Sweden’s Freddie Loof and Britain’s Iain Percy.

O’Leary and Burrows might have held a top 10 standing and a place in today’s final but for a “flyer” to the extreme left handside of the course at the start that was followed within minutes by a windshift that favoured the majority of the fleet on the right.

By the first mark, they were four boats from last and did well to work back to 20th but needed at least another eight places to hold a top 10 result.

However, the Crosshaven/Malahide duo have topped the Irish selection trials and must now concentrate on next December’s ISAF Sailing World Championships where they must qualify Ireland to be nominated for the Irish team.

Murphy’s day also fell victim to the same windshift as she too was caught out and placed 33rd in her first race of the day. Her recovery in the second race and 10th of the series proved to be her fifth win of the week and 10th bullet including her performances at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Holland two weeks ago. The medal race final of the Laser Radial class will be sailed at 11am today.