Murphy on a wave of emotion in medal bid
Murphy goes into the double points medal race with a great chance of winning gold. She is one of a top group of four sailors which are separated by just one point. Three can medal, one will finish disappointed.
In terms of previous success she is very much the underdog. Lying on 33 points are China’s Olympic bronze medallist Lijia Xu and Holland’s 2011 World Champion Marit Bouwmeester.
Only one point behind, she is tied with the World Cup winner and world number one ranked Belgian sailor Evi Van Acker. The Irish sailor opened her first Olympic regatta with a stunning charge of four back to back wins, but has been more inconsistent in the last two days of racing, aggregating 22 points over four races.
With the medal arena brought close in to land to allow the paying spectators the best viewing, the price the sailors have to pay is dealing with the sometimes random winds, but Murphy says she has no fears.
“To be in a position where I can attack in the medal race and possibly win a medal is an awesome feeling. I wanted to come here and finish in the top ten and so I feel like I have already achieved that so I am just going to out there and fight andhopefully I can do something special.”
She has sailed her best in strong winds, scoring her four back to back wins on the more offshore courses.
After light, fickle winds for yesterday’s medal races which saw Ben Ainslie narrowly win a fourth gold medal, and Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson slip from gold to silver, the Laser medal races today are expecting to see a return to fresher breezes. But Murphy insists she will take it as it comes.
“The weather makes no difference to me. The last few days have been about tactics not speed and I have held my own.
“I feel like I have been getting the windshifts right. I have made a few mistakes but overall I have been happy with my sailing.”
Of her rivals she says she is looking forwards to an open race: “Marit is a world champion, Evi has been top three in every single event in the last two years and Lijia came third in Beijing and so it will pretty tough but I am hoping I can shake things up.”
And she is hoping that, on the ultimate stage in sport, in front of a big crowd, that she will be able to lay to rest her disappointment at not being able to secure the world championships bronze. The medal slipped from her grasp in the final stages of the medal race in Perth, Australia.
“I think that with all of us so close on points then no one will match race each other. It should be an open race and so hopefully I can capitalise on that.
“Perth’s medal race was pretty tough. I was in bronze medal position through the race and then it went wrong. Things happen in medal races, they were brought in to make it exciting for TV, but they can be really hard.”
The Irish Sailing Association’s performance director James O’Callaghan added:
“The objective was that she should be contender for a medal, so we have achieved that already. She has absolutely worked her ass off for this, and so she certainly deserves it.”
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