Irish Sailing has confirmed that Rio 2016 silver medallist Annalise Murphy will be nominated in the Laser Radial to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Her nomination will now be put forward to the Olympic Federation of Ireland for ratification.
There were originally three scheduled trial regattas, but due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, both the Palma and Hyéres events were cancelled, and the 2020 Olympics postponed until 2021.
Under the selection process, if one or more of the trial regattas are cancelled, then the person with the best performance in the completed trial regattas secures the Laser Radial nomination. Murphy finished the ILCA Laser Radial Women's World Championship in 12th place, Aoife Hopkins finished in 40th, Aisling Keller 63rd, and Eve McMahon 78th.
Irish sailing performance director James O’Callaghan added: “Annalise’s performance in the 2020 Worlds made her a clear favourite to win the scheduled trials. By nominating her now the Irish Sailing Board have ensured that team preparations can move focus to the Olympics rather than preparing for domestic trials.
“For sure this is tough on Aoife but she is still very young and can benefit massively from team training planned in Tokyo”.
Sailing Ireland says the team will continue to train in the Dun Laoghaire Performance HQ. Hopkins and McMahon remain a part of the training group, while Keller has decided to return to college.
