Going into Thursday’s Olympic men's skiff double points medal race, Ireland's Robert Dickson (HYC) and Sean Waddilove (SSC) lie in second place, five points behind Spain, with New Zealand three points back. The permutations are endless, but a top-four result will ensure Ireland's first 49er Olympic medal.
On the now very familiar Marseille race track, the single-digit consistency that put Dickson and Waddilove on the podium after the completion of a nine series races deserted them for the first two of Wednesday’s three races, but a stunning performance in the third race saw a recovery in the overall standings.
Results are provisional and subject to protest.
Racing on the Frioul course, the Irish posted 11, 14 and 2nd to lie 2nd overall going into tomorrow’s medal race. Once again, the light winds caused long delays in getting the racing underway.
Race 10, the first of the day, started in a 10-knot SSE breeze. The Irish pairing slipped from 3rd place at the first windward mark to 5th after the run, but the real damage was done on the next upwind leg, losing five places to 12th, which they maintained to the finish. They were promoted to 11th in the results as the host nation had a premature start.
Race 11 was also light and shifty, and the Irish team were in the lower half of the fleet all race, finishing 14th. Leaders Spain and New Zealand also finished with double digits, but the USA made progress up the overall leaderboard to relegate the Irish boat to 4th overall.
In Race 12, the wind speed increased to 13 knots at the start, and Ireland capitalised on the improvement to round the weather mark in first place. They held the lead until the final gybe, when the Croatian 49er pipped them to the line.
"Today was a really tough day, we had two really hard races, but we managed to bounce back and have a really good last race," Dickson said following today’s racing. "But the good thing is we have a good track record in medal races, so we're pretty confident."
Results are here
The Medal Race is set for Thursday at 1.43 pm.
Explainer
Medals for the Men’s Skiff (49er will be decided by the cumulative results of the 20-strong fleet over 12 races. The boat with the lowest total will rank first.
Athletes will be able to discard their worst finishing position after they’ve completed three races.
At the end of the Opening Series, the top ten boats in the fleet will qualify for the Medal Race, which is worth double points.
The score in the Medal Race cannot be discarded. The crew with the smallest overall points total will win gold.