The 2016 Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy has moved up to 14th in the overall standings from 20th in the Laser Radial sailing class in Tokyo after her latest races.
The Dubliner put two difficult days firmly to one side by taking victory in race seven before finishing second in race eight on the water today.
The Rathfarnham sailor admitted that she was almost doubting herself before her improvement today.
”I guess I’m just delighted that I finally managed to put together a good day. You start to doubt if you’re actually good enough to be doing this, or maybe you’ve just forgotten how to sail.
“I think I realised that I put so much pressure on myself to try and do well here. When I realised that I had kind of messed it up, I just had to go out and actually enjoy the sailing and enjoy the racing and take it one race at a time; try and do the simple stuff right and hopefully then, I would get some good races.”
After finishing ninth in race five and 10th in race six on Tuesday, following a disappointing start last weekend, where she finished 35th in her opening race, a third Olympic final is now within her compass.
She has two more chances to move up the standings to qualify for the medal race, which features the top 10 sailors.
“I just have to go out tomorrow and enjoy the racing and sail well. I can’t really do anything fancy – I just have to keep on chipping away, and hopefully I can pull out two more good results.”
