Olympic Sailing 2024: Consistency key for Women’s Skiff leaders Steyaert and Picon

The French pair are making a habit of finishing second, doing so in five of their six races so far, which has put them in control on Day Three.

The Netherlands duo of Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz were unable to replicate what they achieved on Sunday, but fifth in race six was enough for them to hold on to second overall.

A brilliant day for Italy’s Jana Germani and Giorgia Bertuzzi moved them up nine spots, into third, after they managed to confidently win race four.

Steyaert said: “I think in these three last months we’ve made a lot of good work with the team, equipment, wind, research and tactics.

“We were waiting for the Games and we are here and we are enjoying every moment and that’s the key in this team.”

Picon said: “In light wind we were very focused on the start and after we had very good speed in the upwind.”

Duetz said: “Today was a bit trickier for us. We had two races to find our groove again and in the last race we felt quick again, but the first two races were a bit slower.”

Van Aanholt said: “So there’s quite a lot of currents out today and we were a bit late. We weren’t expecting there to be breeze out there and it kind of surprised us. And we were caught by surprise by the currents.

“We’re not looking at the results now, it’s not our priority at the moment. There are still a lot of processes we can do better.

“We can do a lot of improvements on our starts. I think we were very strong in the rest of the races with good strategics and very good boat speeds. So we’ll take that as a positive and work on our starts tomorrow.”

Germani said: “We are feeling relaxed, feeling focused, and we are very happy with our speed in these conditions.”

How it works:

Medals for the Women’s Skiff (49erFX) will be decided by the cumulative results of the 20-strong fleet over 12 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 crew with the smallest overall points total will win gold.