Irish crews claim two wins on Olympic venue

SAILING:IRISH CREWS delivered their creditable performances of the current Olympic cycle with two race wins at the Sail for Gold regatta at wind-swept Weymouth yesterday. Annalise Murphy delivered two of her strongest performances to date yesterday when she won last night's postponed fourth race in the Laser Radial class at the venue for the London 2012 Olympic sailing events.

And even later last night, the international jury confirmed Peter O’Leary with substitute crewman Frithjof Kleen were the winners of the sole race in the Star keelboat fleet.

With conditions described as “fresh to frightening”, day two of the Sail for Gold Regatta at gave the 989 competitors a thorough test.With seas of up to two metres as times, Murphy revelled in the conditions and led her 45-strong qualifier flight for most of the first race, at one stage enjoying a 300-metre lead.

Only a wind-shift caused an upset to her form and the Dún Laoghaire single-hander took second place behind Belgium’s Evi Van Acker. But as conditions eased slightly for the second race in the late afternoon, Murphy continued her form to take the first Irish bullet and beat the world number-two into second place.

Meanwhile, the single race of Star class became controversial following a significant race management problem laying the course.O’Leary and Kleen approached the windward mark in the lead but discovered the race committee had not laid the buoy and was forced to wait while second-placed Iain Percy with Andrew Simpson gained ground.

As new leader, Percy then had trouble after rounding the mark when the wing or spreader mark was suddenly laid – after he was already sailing downwind and he was forced to sail upwind again. O’Leary and Kleen took second while Percy was fifth but quickly headed for the jury to protest. The Irish win was confirmed while Percy and Simpson retained fifth place.