Today at the Games: August 7

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Men's dinghy heartbreak for Beckett

Heartbreak.

We already knew sailing could be cruel from Emma Wilson’s windsurfing bronze earlier in the week. 

Today we were reminded again, as Micky Beckett came excruciatingly close to winning bronze, only to have it snatched from him.

Here’s what happened on day 11.

ILCA 7
The forecast was for a short window of breeze that would allow racing to get underway – and after the women’s dinghy fleet completed their medal race the men’s fleet were started.

Micky Beckett sailed a beautiful race and was in second, enough to secure him the bronze medal, when the race committee chose to abandon the action with just one short leg to go.

The restarted race started in the worst possible way – with a penalty on the start line for supposedly using his body to aid his boat’s motion through the water.

He fought back but was handed two more penalties during the race, relegating him to tenth. The result saw him finish sixth overall.

“To have the bronze medal taken away so close to the end of the first race was pretty tough. But I was like ‘this is sport, this is sailing in particular, this does happen’.   

“The second race chewed me up, spat me out and I went from fourth with a really good chance of bronze to sixth, which is just a bit crushing for me.  In time I'll get over it. It'll sink in in time but right now it's pretty tough.”

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Kite men
Connor Bainbridge was leading race eight when it was abandoned. The men’s kite fleet were duly sent back to the beach, then sent home for the day. 

Bainbridge will go into tomorrow’s medal series in eighth. He will face three athletes in one of two semifinals, in which he will have to win three races to progress to the final.

“I’ve got a lot to do, but at the same time it’s nothing I haven’t done before.” He said. 

“The group I’m up against are mostly my old training group. I’m going in confident that we can make that final.”

Kite women
The women’s fleet didn’t even manage to start a race before they were sent home.

Ellie Aldridge is tied on points with leader Lauriane Nolot, but will go straight to the final in second place on countback.

She will need to win two races in the final before Nolot wins one in order to secure the gold medal.

“I’m confident I can do it,” she said. “I’m expecting there to be lots of changes in the leaderboard in the semis, but thankfully for me I just have to race the final. Hopefully it’s just a two-race day for me.”

Nacra 17
It was always going to be a struggle to get through four medal races given the forecast, and despite being sent out the Nacra 17 fleet didn’t manage to get their medal race started.

John Gimson and Anna Burnet will go again tomorrow, looking to make the podium for the second Olympics on the trot.

What’s coming up
The grand finale of the Paris 2024 sailing competition will take place tomorrow with the mixed multihull medal race and the men’s and women’s kite medal series. 

After billing kiting as the future of Olympic sailing, and the fastest, most exciting summer sport, production bosses have spectacularly not broadcast any of the racing thus far.

Thankfully that will change tomorrow, with kite foiling taking centre stage for the closing day of the Paris 2024.

Full results can be found 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.