Irish in action on Day Six in London
Irish in Action:Ger Owens and Scott Flanigan endured a rough start to their Olympic campaign this afternoon, when finishing 18th and 25th in the first two races at Weymouth to lie 23rd of 27 heading into tomorrow.
It wasn't an ideal start for the pair but Irish Sailing Association (ISA) performance director James O’Callaghan insists there's a long way to go.
“The guys were delighted to finally get out on the water today," said Callaghan. "It’s only day one for them so there’ll be plenty more sailing during the week. Ger is an experienced Olympian so this is a great way for Scott to get his introduction to the Games.”
The 49er crew of Ryan Seaton and Matt McGoverntackle tomorrow’s three races (1.30pm, 2.15pm and 3pm) from ninth place overall, after finishing 11th and ninth in today’s two races.
With seven races remaining, they are still capable of bridging the gap on leaders Australia.
“Ryan and Matt have been sailing flat out for four days and they’ve remained within the top 10 every day. They’re sailing really well and are intent on keeping it that way”, said O’Callaghan.
The Cork duo of Peter O’Leary and David Burrowswere disqualified from Race 7 and finished ninth in Race 8 of the Men’s Star to sit ninth overall on 57 points, 44 off the net total of leaders Britain.
They had a strong start to their first race of the day and were fourth by the second mark but dropped back to ninth before a dispute with Denmark went the way of their opponents and the Irish boat incurred 17 points rather than the nine their place would have usually merited.
The final two fleet races take place tomorrow before the top 10 progress to the double points medal race on Sunday.
Barry Murphywill not progress to the semi-finals of the 50 metres freestyle after a underwhelming swim of 22.76 seconds this morning. The time may have been good enough to take second in his heat but was well off the pace required to advance to the last 16.
Murphy had been hoping to post a personal best to round of a campaign that failed to live up to expectations but was well outside his Irish record of 22.14. The 26-year-old had also been disappointed with his performance in his favoured event, the 100m breaststroke, earlier in these Olympics.
“Thank you to everyone for the overwhelming support,” Murphy tweeted afterwards. “Very humbling. Unfortunately, I didn't perform to the best of my ability. Gutted."
Melanie Nocherseemed to have a problem as she finished seventh in her heats of the 200 metres backstroke in a sluggish time of 2:16.29. The Holywood swimmer was visibly upset after her race after clocking a time way outside her personal best.
Nocher declined to speak to the media after her event but took to Twitter to explained that she had been poorly since the weekend.
“Well I gave it my best have had gastro intensitis since sunday so have been feeling anything but good, least I can say I gave it my all,” she explained.
“We are obviously disappointed with Melanie’s swim, she did a 2:10 seven weeks ago and we were hoping that if she did that time here it would carry her through to a semi-final,” Peter Banks, national performance director of Swim Ireland said afterwards.
“She has had an upset stomach the last day or so, we are upset for her and the outcome of her race.
