DAY 5 ANALYSIS: TWO MOUTHWATERING SKIFF FINALES FOR THURSDAY

Men’s Skiff: Seven in with a shout of Gold

With scores from the day of 15,12,6, Diego Botin and Florian Trittel might have felt a bit deflated with their performance. However, it was another chaotic day for pretty much everyone in the men’s 49er fleet, a day when it would be easy to lose your mind with all the unfairness being hurled at them by the fickle wind on the Bay of Marseille.

The Spanish emerge from the conclusion of 12 fleet races still wearing the yellow bibs, and with a 5-point edge over the Irish, Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove. There were moments when Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie moved into the overall lead, such as when the McKiwis had won the first race of the session. In the last race the New Zealanders reached the first mark in 12th but then hit the mark and had to do a penalty turn which knocked them down five places. That could prove a critical loss of points, but then this week has been a story of ‘ifs, buts and maybes’ for all 20 teams in the Men’s Skiff.

Best performers of the day, and the only team to keep all their scores in the top 10, were Poland’s Dominik Buksak and Szymon Wierzbicki. This final day consistency lifts them to fifth, just behind the USA’s Ian Barrow and Hans Henken who are just four points off the podium.

No one has run away with the competition and there are at least four teams with a serious shot at gold and the top seven have a mathematical chance of taking the top prize. This is unheard of in Medal Races, where often the gold medal has been wrapped up with a race to spare. Hard to imagine but even the Chinese – Zaiding Wen and Tian Liu – who snuck through in 10th place, could grab a bronze if all the stars were to align.

Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken came to the Games as three-time World Champions and favourites for the gold medal in the 49er. The Dutch won one of today’s races comfortably but some lacklustre finishes in the other races saw them miss the Medal Race by a single point. One of the first big shocks of these Games, although it won’t be the last. UPDATE – After racing, the Technical Committee protested China for incorrect placement of their corrector weights, and the Chinese team was disqualified from all three races of the final day. As such, China moves down to 16th place, and the Dutch move into 10th place and get a medal race berth.

Women’s Skiff: All down to the last day

Best performers from the final day of Women’s Skiff racing were the reigning, and now outgoing, Olympic Champions. Scoring 4,9,2 reminds us that Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze are a class act, and it pulls them up to eighth overall, earning them a spot in the medal race. However, the prospect of a medal is beyond the Brazilians on this occasion.

All of the top five still have a chance at the gold medal, although for Marla Bergmann and Hanna Wille of Germany it would be a very long shot indeed. Helene Naess and Marie Ronningen have really hit their stride over the past couple of days and the Norwegians’ scores of 2,5,8 from Wednesday move them to fourth place and just two points behind Sweden’s Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler.

The Swedes used their incredible boat speed to win two of today’s races before faltering in the last with a 17th. If it’s blowing 10 knots or more for the Medal Race then this might be the boost the Swedes need to take on the two frontrunners. Between France’s Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon versus Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz of The Netherlands, it’s a straight who-beats-who battle, But with the others just behind them, there’s no room for match racing in the Medal Race.