Golds for Australia and China
Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell remain firmly in contention for a gold medal, after another tense day battling with the Australian team in the 470 class.
The British duo won the first race of the day with Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page in third.
Patience and Bithell were one spot behind the Aussies in race two with the boats finishing fifth and sixth.
The Britons are now a point behind Belcher and Page, but Italians Gabrio Zandona and Pietro Zucchetti are a massive 29 points further back in third.
There was success for Australia on the medal-race course where Tom Slingsby (pictured) won gold in the Laser.
Slingsby match-raced Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus – the only competitor who could beat him – down the fleet to ensure that the pair finished in ninth and tenth places in the race and Slingsby secured the gold medal.
Kontides’ silver medal was the first Olympic medal Cyprus has won in any sport.
Britain’s Paul Goodison – the reigning Olympic champion – finished the race third to come seventh overall, but was just pleased to make it through the regatta after struggling throughout with back pain.
Rasmus Myrgren won a bronze medal to go with the gold won yesterday by his Swedish compatriots in the Star.
No-one in the Laser Radial had the luxury of match racing anyone down the fleet with the first four boats separated by just a single point before the medal race.
China’s Lijia Xu, the Netherlands’ Marit Bouwmeester and Belgium’s Evi Van Acker finished first, second and third respectively in the race to occupy those same three positions on the podium.
Ireland’s Annalise Murphy could only manage a fifth in the race to finish a heartbreaking fourth overall, despite winning the first four races of the regatta.
British hopeful Alison Young secured her credible fifth-overall finish with a fourth place in the medal race.
The 49ers have a rest day tomorrow before Wednesday’s medal race, which Britain’s Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes will enter with hopes of a bronze medal.
Australia’s Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen must only finish the race to win the gold medal, after first and third-place finishes today.
Likewise Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand secured second overall with two sixth places.
But Morrison and Rhodes have it all to play for. Finishing 17th and seventh today, they sit six points behind Denmark’s Allan Norregaard and Peter Land and five behind Finland’s Lauri Lehtinen and Kalle Bask, meaning they must finish at least three places clear of both in the medal race to get a bronze.
Picture courtesy of onEdition.