Rio 2016: Annalise Murphy moves into top spot as going gets rough

A key contender in the Laser class, Burton was sitting tenth after the first day of racing, but has come back with a second place and a tenth in today’s two races to move up into fourth overall.

Murphy says she is looking forward to spending a day in bed today, recharging batteries before the final five races, but she will hope that the shore leave doesn’t give the weather a chance to settle.

Giles recovered in the afternoon’s second race, finishing third behind 2012 silver medalist Jonas Hogh-Christensen of Denmark and Slovenia’s Vasilij Zbogar, who placed first.

The Dun Laoghaire sailor is on 12 points, five behind Zu and one ahead of Dutch rivals Anne-Marie Rindom and Mari Boumeester hot on her trail.

Railey did not fare as well, posting 10th and 21st place finishes. He is now lying 19 overall, but is still optimistic with eight races remaining in the preliminary series.

The top three finishers: Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic (first), Argentina’s Julio Alsogaray (second), Russia’s Sergei Komissarov (third).

American Paige Railey had an impressive second race finishing in second but finished 13th overall for the day.

“There are still four more races to go and then the medal race”.

The open ocean conditions were in stark contrast to the opening two days sailed on different courses inside the relative shelter of Guanabara Bay, with swell height at times reaching four metres and winds gusting to over 20 knots. Picon would’ve had to have been flawless to better her efforts from yesterday’s races, where she posted two first-place and one second-place finishes. She claimed outright victory in the first two races of the day, and added a strong fourth-place finish in the third.

Full results: Women’s RS:X in Day 3 of Olympic sailing. The sailor or boat with the lowest points total after multiple races wins the regatta.

Dominating the men’s RS:X lately have been Netherlands’ Dorian van Rijsselberge and Great Britain’s Nick Dempsey.

Poland’s Piotr Myszka also extended a streak of top-five finishes and sits now in third place.