Olympic Sailing 2024: Spanish Surge Puts Botin and Trittel On Top in Men’s Skiff

The third day of 49er racing at Paris 2024 brought a big shift in the standings, as Diego Botin and Florian Trittel mastered the wind to take the lead in the Men’s Skiff.

The Spanish surge began right from the off and did not let up, as the duo secured two second place finishes at the end of Day Four.

Ireland’s Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove did not manage to replicate their earlier success, but fourth in race seven helped them hold on to the second spot overall.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie fell to third in the standings after a difficult day in windier conditions.

Botin said: “Today was a very tough day with a different scenario in the first race than in the two next ones.

“In the first race the wind was coming from the left side of the mountain and in the next two races the wind was turning on the right side.

“We managed to position the boat well and we are really happy with having done so at such a difficult day at the Olympics and we will see if tomorrow we can have a similar day and repeat it.”

Dickson said: “Today was super, super tricky. Wind off the mountain and it was coming either side. It was very unpredictable, but I think we managed it okay.

“We’re pretty happy to be able to get away with some decent results today.”

Waddilove said: “There’s still a decent amount of racing and we’ll just stick to what’s working. We just focus on it, race by race and not really thinking about results too much.”

McKenzie said: “So the breeze was coming straight over the mountain, sometimes from the left and sometimes from the right.

“It was a very difficult sea state so it was important to try and figure out exactly where the breeze was coming from to put yourself in the right spots. It was a tricky day.”