Olympic Sailing 2024: Wearn and Bouwmeester edge closer to Individual Dinghy golds

Matt Wearn and Marit Bouwmeester edged closer to gold medals in the Men’s and Women’s Dinghy, despite both having their least productive days on the water so far.

Australia’s Wearn maintained his firm grip on the Men’s Dinghy standings after picking up two tenth placed finishes, which means he is now 14 points ahead in the rankings.

Behind him sits Cyprus’ Pavlos Kontides who moved up a spot, after placing third and seventh in the fourth day of racing.

Peru’s Stefano Peschiera moved back into the top three with a better outing in Marseille, which saw him finish fourth in race nine, meaning he is now ten points off the Cypriot sailor.

Kontides said: “The wind was very up and down so there were a lot of chances to gain, but also a lot of chances to lose.

“I feel good every day. It’s been better and better for me. I’m confident and comfortable and you can see from the regatta how high scores are in general and this shows the depth of the fleet and the trickiness of the bay.”

Peschiera said: “I’ve given my best every race, in every upwind and every downwind. After Tokyo I changed my approach and started doing things for myself and results started changing too, because I’m just focusing on doing my job the best I can and enjoying the process.

“It’s very hard to not look at the results and feel like you are out of your comfort zone, but we’re used to it. You can never take anything for granted in this class. Points are close and today had to be a day when we attacked.”

Bouwmeester opened the day with a third placed finish in race seven and then came 11th in the subsequent race which was her weakest finish of the regatta so far.

Despite the result the Dutch sailor is still far ahead of the fleet, sitting 28 points clear of Anne-Marie Rindom.

The Danish athlete began the day with an underwhelming 15th, but recovered well to take fourth in the next race and solidify her hold over second overall.

Switzerland’s Maud Jayet sits in third, 12 points adrift of Rindom, following seventh and eighth finishes today.

Bouwmeester said: “This Olympics is quite the same as Rio, where you’re in the middle of the bay. I’m just focusing on myself and sailing as well as possible.”

Rindom said: “It has been tricky and there have been some really long days for us girls starting out. The heat takes the energy out of you. We were prepared for the heat, but this is another level.

“I was a little disappointed in the first race about my decisions at the start. I started alone on the left side and it was too much of a risk looking back now.”

Jayet said: “The wind shifted around quite a lot during both races. There was quite a big variation in intensity. I’m glad my strategy paid off both times.”

How it works:

Medals for the Women’s and Men’s Dinghy (ILCA 6 and ILCA 7) will be decided by the cumulative results of the 40-strong fleet over 10 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 sailor with the smallest overall points total will win gold.