Kingussie sailor Fynn Sterritt in Olympic medal contention

Kingussie sailor Fynn Sterritt and GB teammate James Peters are hoping the stars will align today as they bid for a medal at the Paris Olympics.

The pair had been in real contention for a podium place going into yesterday’s fourth day of races of the 49ers.

They were placed fourth overall but had dropped down to seventh by the end of race 12 after a disappointing result in race 10.

Related article:

Crowd to gather in Boat of Garten today to cheer on Sterritt and Peters

It means that they had to use their one result discard after finishing 18th - but that has brought their disappointing first race finish into their tally. The lowest overall scorers will claim gold.

Without the two outliers - the other also being Monday’s 18th place - they would be right in the thick of the medal hunt.

The pair picked themselves up, however, with two good sails meaning that a medal is still within reach.

Gold is still a mathematical possibility for the European Champions but they would need everything to go their way.

They will be competing amongst the top ten boats for the Men’s Skiff (49er) Medal Race this afternoon.

Sterritt said of yesterday’s races: “It really has been a grind. It felt like every day we were chipping away and working our way up.

“Our first race was tricky so we added quite a few points there, but we finished it off with two really good races. Two pressure races at the end there. I felt like we delivered.

“Mathematically it's still possible. You’ve got to believe we’re going to keep flying till the end.”

Peters, from Hayling Island in Hampshire, said: “There's obviously only going to be one objective and that's to win the race and hope things fall in behind us.

“All our attention will be on doing that.

“To be honest, it's really cool to be here on that final day. It's still a chance.

“It feels like we left some points out there, yes we wish we were higher up, but we’re going into the medal race with a chance of a medal.

“We've got to believe it, back ourselves, and hit it.”

Diego Botin and Florian Trittel maintained their position at the summit of the Men's Skiff standings with the Medal Race to come tomorrow.

The Spanish duo did not manage to finish in the top five at all today, but inconsistency across the board meant they ended the Opening Series with a five-point lead.

Seven crews are still in with a shot of winning gold as the contest heads into the crucial finale which starts at 1.43pm.

Scores in the one-off race count as double in the medal race and can not be discarded. It means that a maximum score of 20 points will be added to the boat finishing in 10th place.

Standings: 1st Diego Botin le Chever & Florian Trittel Paul (Spain) 65pts; 2nd Robert Dickson & Sean Waddilove (Ireland) 71pts; 3rd Isaac McHardie & William McKenzie 75pts; 4th Ian Barrows & Hans Henken (USA) 79pts; 5th Dominik Buksak & Szymon Wierzbicki 81pts; 6th Sime Fantela & Mihovil Fantela (Croatia) 84pts; 7th James Peters & Fynn Sterritt 84pts; 8th Sebastien Schneiter & Arno de Planta (Switzerland) 90pts; 9th Hernan Umpierre & Fernando Diz (Uruguay) 91pts; 10th Bart Lambriex and Floris van de Werken (Netherlands) 93pts.

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.