Today at the Games: August 5

Micky Beckett goes into the men's dinghy medal race in fourth. © World Sailing

Beckett into men's dinghy medal race

Yet another day of waiting for wind in Marseille. Day nine was up there with the most frustrating of the regatta so far, with long waits ashore and on the water. 

Here’s how the day went down.

ILCA 7
Thanks to the onboard cameras installed on their boats, the ILCA 7 fleet were not allowed to tow out to the race area on the far side of Marseille bay.

Fine on a windy day, but with less than five knots blowing it made for a 90-minute drift to the Frioul race course before any racing had happened.

Micky Beckett had banked on racing taking place to give him the opportunity to close the points gap from his current position in fourth. 

It wasn’t to be. After several hours of bobbing about the race committee conceded defeat, and the fleet was sent home.

Gold is impossible, but silver is still within grasp. Everything will come down to the ten-boat medal race tomorrow.

ILCA 6
The women’s dinghy fleet fared slightly better than the men’s in that they completed one race in marginal winds. 

However it was right on the borderline of being sailable, and Hannah Snellgrove’s 32nd relegated her from the top ten.

The race committee tried hard to start a second race but eventually gave up, leaving Snellgrove to accept 12th place overall in the 43-boat fleet at her debut Olympics.

It’s a tough pill to swallow for Snellgrove, who was third just two days ago having won two races back to back.

“It feels a bit bizarre that you can go from being in the medals two days ago to not making the medal race now,” an emotional Snellgrove told reporters. “It feels pretty tough, but it's sport, you know, it's tough.

“I feel like I was sailing better than my result shows in a few months before the Olympics, so it's difficult right now. But give me a few days, maybe a week, and I might feel a bit differently about it.”

Special mention goes to Dutch sailor Marit Bouwmeester who sewed up gold with a day to spare, and in the process overtakes Hannah Mills as the most successful female Olympic sailor of all time.

Nacra 17
“It's the Olympics and you kind of expect everyone to peak here so we knew coming into this it would be a pretty challenging regatta,” John Gimson said as the fourth day of racing in the mixed multihull came to a close.

Challenging it has been. However Gimson and Burnet said on day one they would have to play the long game, and they go into the penultimate day of racing in fourth, only ten points off second, with three more races ahead of the medal finale on Wednesday.

Connor Bainbridge says kitefoiling is here to stay. © World Sailing

Women’s kite
First to launch were the kites, and after a solid day one yesterday Ellie Aldridge opened her day two scorecard with a fourth, and was leading the second race comfortably when it was abandoned.

She sits 0.2 of a point behind new leader Elena Lengwiler of Switzerland going into the third day of racing tomorrow.

“We know the area, we know the venue, we know what it can be like and it is challenging,” Aldridge said. 

“I think it will be tricky to get good racing in for the next few days. I’ve just got to stay focused all the time and keep trying to get some consistent scores up there.”

Men’s kite
Connor Bainbridge nabbed a seventh in the only men’s kite race of the day, but was just grateful for a chance to show the watching fans how cool the kite competition is. 

“I think today it just showcased how incredible our sport is,” he said. “I don't think any other class got much more above six knots on their GPSs and we, we are doing full racing hitting up to 30 knots in, in as little as four knots of wind. 

“I think it definitely showed that kite surfing is here to stay, a little bit more wind in Marseille would be quite nice.”

470
Much like the men’s dinghy, the mixed dinghy fleet also fell foul of the lack of breeze, and while one race was started it was abandoned before the finish. 

Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube have one more day of racing to advance up the leaderboard from their current 11th place.

Full results can be found here.

What’s coming up
All eyes will be on Micky Beckett as he goes for a medal in the ILCA 7 medal race. Conditions are – shock – set to be light. Follow our social media channels for the latest as the action unfolds. The full Paris 2024 sailing competition schedule is here.

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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.