Tokyo Olympics – Day 3 Sailing Highlights

Day 3 of the Tokyo Games sailing and results were very dependent on when you raced and where, with a blustery 14-18 knots early on but then the wind shut down mid-afternoon which caused delays.

Dream start for Charlotte Dobson and Saskia Tidey in the 49erFX winning the first two races and discarding a sixth place in race 3 to lead overall.

Meanwhile the Kiwis capsized while leading the first race and the Brazilians then had a gennaker sheet jammed and watched almost the whole fleet sail past as they finished in 15th.

In the 49er Dylan Fletcher and Stu Bithell narrowly beaten to the win in only race of the day by the Irish pair, Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove.

Upset in the Finn with defending champion, Giles Scott only managing ninth overall after two races.

But he was not the only one to suffer while Turkey’s Alican Kaynar made a perfect start to his with two race wins, Max Salminen SWE is 12th and Josh Junior NZL is 14th.

On Wednesday the Finns move to the further offshore Zushi course and hopefully better conditions, with 15+ knots and a big swell expected.

49erFX
Charlotte Dobson – ‘It was a great day. I think if someone had told us we would have those results on day one yesterday we would have grabbed their hand off. Today was about being a bit boring but brave if we saw an opportunity, and that’s what we did a little bit today.’

Saskia Tidey – ‘What’s important for us is not to do anything that surprises us or anyone else, with the conditions out there we just need to keep it consistent and back each other to deliver what we already know.’

49er
Dylan Fletcher –
‘Yeah a good start. Not quite as good as my fiancés [teammate Charlotte Dobson] but we’ll take that. Second place. There’s some rivalry but we do wish each other the best.’

‘In the 49er class especially Britain has been really strong but at this point we’ve never won Gold so it would be amazing and quite a fairy tale if we could finish that off here.’

Stu Bithell – ‘There was an opportunity for us to try to nip ahead of them on the finish line but they just managed to hold on and it was quite good fun actually on the slipway just winding them up a little bit, but it’s all good fun. We like the Irish.’

Finn
Giles Scott – ‘It was a long tricky day. Super shifty in the first one and racing underneath the headland with a 40 degree shift which I got caught on the wrong side of. And a fair few spins in the second race. Not the best of starts but a long way to go and I’ll attack more tomorrow.’

Laser Standard
Elliot Hanson – ‘I’m now carrying a big score as my discard so I’m going to have to be squeaky clean for the last four races. I’m still in the mix though, so I will go back, regroup, enjoy a rest day tomorrow and come back out fighting on Thursday.’