Racing further out to sea in a westerly 9–12 knot breeze on Rio's Pia course, Annalise Murphy scored 12th in race eight and is in bronze medal position going into the final two qualifying races tomorrow. Race eight completed a tough day on the water for the Dubliner who lost the overall lead but stays very much in the mix for the medals, just 14–points off the lead.
Annalise rounded the top mark in race eight in ninth place in good company from the left and importantly had rivals Marit Bouwmeester (NED), Anne–Marie Rindom (DEN) and China's Lila Xu behind her.
On the first downwind leg, Annalise opted to go low, a good bit below the rhumb line and ended up getting pushed high to the leeward gate by overall leader Rindom.
Nearly the entire 37–boat fleet headed left on the second beat, to the extent that it appeared to be consistently paying to be on the left side of the Pia course. Annalise was somewhere between tenth and 14th, and was furthest left on and on the layline, or above it, on the last quarter of the beat. The tracker put her 12th in a good lane when Boumeester tacked inside her and Annalise rounded 11th.
On the next run, Annalise went left and this time stuck more to the rhumb line, but it was neck and neck with the Dutch World Number One for the entire leg.
At the line, after 50 minutes of hard racing, Annalise took 12th with Bouwmeester 13th. Results are provisional and subject to protest.
Races nine and ten will be held tomorrow.