Today at the Games: August 3

© Sailing Energy

Emma Wilson wins windsurfing bronze

It’s bronze for Emma Wilson at Paris 2024, making her the first British woman to win back-to-back Olympic windsurfing medals. 

Here’s what went down on an emotional day in Marseille.

iQFOiL women
Emma Wilson went into the iQFOiL medal series as the gold medal favourite on the back of an incredible eight wins from 14 races. 

Her sheer dominance was unquestionable – no other athlete even came close to matching her brilliance this week. 

But the route to an iQFOiL medal is fraught with jeopardy, and despite her authority she needed to win the three-athlete final-race shoot out.

Wilson started strongly and led after one lap of the course, but a slight layline error gave rivals Marta Maggetti and Sharon Kantor a chance back into the race.

Wilson ultimately crossed the line in third, relegating her to the bronze medal position.

Devastated not to be bringing home a gold, Wilson said the medal series format needed to be reviewed.

“It's so hard. As a person, I love it so much, that's why I do it, but I’m not sure I can carry on with the format like this.”

Whatever the colour, Emdog is our golden girl.

iQFOiL men
Sam Sills knew that by qualifying for the medal series he had a shot at gold – and he went into the quarter final with the bit between his teeth.

Pulling back from sixth to second, Sills secured his place in the four-athlete semis in style.

He gave everything in the semi-final, and was right up there with the leaders until the final leg when he was forced to duck under the Dutch athlete, resulting in losing ground.

He finishes Paris 2024 in a highly respectable fifth place.

“The semi-final race was so intense, I thought I was inches away from a medal,” he said.

“I’m feeling elation and happiness and a bit of disappointment. But I’m also just so happy to have made it this far. I’m proud to be here. I've done it, I've got fifth. I'm happy.”

© World Sailing

ILCA 6
While the madness of the iQFOiL medal series was taking place, Hannah Snellgrove was having the day of days away from the TV cameras, winning not one but two races.

Thriving in the better breeze, Snellgrove was charging. No one could catch her as she stormed to victory in the opening race of the day, then replicated it in the second. 

A 14th wrapped up a stellar day for Snellgrove, and she goes into day four in third overall.

“It's obviously really cool,” she said. “I sort of feel like I can tick ‘win a race in the Olympics’ off a bucket list somewhere. We've got two more days of fleet racing to go so I’ll just keep chipping away.”

ILCA 7
After two slightly disappointing days, Micky Beckett shot up from 12th to second overall in the standings as he banked two fourths. 

“I'm just trying to improve every single day and today was definitely a lot better than any day previously so I'm happy with that,” Beckett said. 

“I'm happy that I'm still fighting, and even when I find myself back in 15th I can still pull through.  Plenty still to go.”

Nacra 17
A solid opening day for John Gimson and Anna Burnet puts them sixth after three races. 

“For us I think we just wanted to be fast but safe,” Burnet said. “On day one no one wins the event. So it's just about getting some steady results, which we did. We've not won and we've not lost, so we’ll keep going.”

470
Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube moved up a place from sixth to fifth overall at the close of play of day two of their competition.
They followed up a great opening day with two more bankers – an eighth and a fifth – with points close ahead of them.

Full results can be found here.

What’s coming up
Sunday promises to be another reasonably windy day in Marseille – although we’ll believe it when we see it. An historic day is in store, as the men’s and women’s kite classes make their Olympic debuts. The full Paris 2024 sailing competition schedule is here.

Follow us
Head to the British Sailing Team’s Paris 2024 hub for all the info on how to follow Team GB’s sailors at Paris 2024 including the competition schedule, live tracking, how to watch and more. For real-time updates check out the British Sailing Team’s social media channels.