Sailing:Annalise Murphy slipped back to third position at the end of the fleet races in the Laser Radial class at Weymouth after finishing the 10th race in sixth position on Saturday afternoon.
The Rathfarnham sailor had earlier retaken top spot with a third place in the ninth race behind China’s Lijia Xu.
The final race saw the Netherlands’ Marit Bouwmeester take victory from Xu in second place and the pair now lead the way on 33 points, with Murphy and Belgium’s Evi van Acker tied just one point behind on 34.
With Britain’s Alison Young 18 points behind in fifth place after being black flagged in the opening race today, it now looks like the medals will be decided between the top four sailors in Monday’s medal race, which is scheduled for 1pm.
With points doubled for that race, Murphy knows that a win will give her the gold medal, whatever the other placings, while she will be guaranteed a medal if she can finish ahead of any of the other three at the top of the standings.
"It was pretty hard out there,” said Murphy, who finished third and seventh today. “Everybody has been having good races and average races so between us top four it is pretty tight.
“I am just going to approach the medal race like any other race and attack it. Hopefully I can take advantage of that. I don’t think we’ll be able to match race each other as we’re so tight on points. It is going to be a good race.”
James Espeyfinished 35th in race 10 of the men's Laser to end his Games in 36th overall.
Ger Owens and Scott Flaniganwere 15th and 23rd in the two 470 races today. It did little for their overall position, leaving them 25th of 27 after six races.
Positions after 10th of 10 fleet races
Jt 1st Lijia Xu (China) and Marit Bouwmeester (Netherlands) 33pts
Jt 3rd Annalise Murphy (Ireland) and Evi van Acker (Belgium) 34pts
5 Alison Young (Britain) 52pts