Today at the Games: July 31

James Peters and Fynn Sterritt are in with a shot of a 49er medal. © World Sailing

Marseille's first medals up for grabs

The stage is set – and tomorrow we’ll see the first medals of the Paris 2024 sailing competition dished out. 

49er
After 12 tricky races, James Peters and Fynn have booked their spot on the start line of the 49er medal race – and a medal is still within grasp.

After a bad start in the first race today they banked two strong results to finish seventh overall, equal on points with the sixth-placed Fantela brothers from Croatia.

They’re nine points from Kiwis Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie in third, and 17 points from top placed Diego Botin and Florian Trittel of Spain.

Mathematically Peters and Sterritt can still win gold, but they’d need the stars to align to do so.

“You’ve got to believe we’re going to keep flying till the end,” a defiant Sterritt said. 

Peters added: “There's obviously only going to be one objective tomorrow, and that's to win the race.”

The 49er medal race will take place on the Marseille course in front of thousands of fans at 2.40pm local time (BST+1).

49erFX
It’s not been Freya Black and Saskia Tidey’s week in Marseille. 

With 12 races completed in the 49erFX fleet the pair finished in 16th – not enough to make the ten-boat medal race. It’s heartbreaking for Freya and Saskia, but sport can be cruel. 

“It's been a great three years working with Sas and the team around us,” said Black, fighting back tears. “Although the result didn't go our way, we couldn't be prouder of how we've handled this week.”

“It is what it is – everyone out there is really bloody good,” said Tidey. “It’s just devastating to underperform for Team GB, but we're here to support everyone else.”

One thing’s for sure – they will be back.

Sam Sills playing to the crowds. © Sailing Energy

iQFOiL women
The Olympic debut of the iQFOiL marathon looked set to be a showcase of endurance and tenacity. 

The concept was an hour-long race taking in all four race courses across the whole of the Bay of Marseille. 

However after a promising start the patchy breeze claimed its victims, and the fleet fell off the foils. 

After an hour of pumping the sails at three knots the race was abandoned. 

Terrible news for race leader Sharon Kantor of Israel, Emma Wilson’s greatest threat for gold, but good news for Wilson who was mid-fleet when the race was binned.

In true Emdog style she regrouped and ashore, and when racing recommenced in the late afternoon she won took the top spot in more races to take her win rate to seven from 11.

One more day of racing sits between Wilson and a shot at gold.

iQFOiL men
Sam Sills jumped another place up the men’s windsurfing leaderboard, finishing the day in eighth overall. 

After a long wait ashore while the women’s fleet completed their marathon – or, rather, didn’t – the men’s fleet finally got going mid-afternoon with a series of slalom races.

Only a 15th in the final race of the day tarnished an otherwise solid day for Sills, who only needs to stay in the top ten for a chance to fight for a medal on Friday.

Full results can be found here.

What’s coming up
The 49er and 49erFX medal races will rightly take centre stage tomorrow, although the forecast looks painstakingly light. And after five days of only seeing windsurfing and skiff racing, tomorrow sees the men’s and women’s dinghy fleets entering the fray as they get their Paris 2024 campaigns underwayThe 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.