Olympic Sailing 2024: Bouwmeester and Wearn extend advantage in Individual Dinghy

It was a full-power day that required a lot of stamina and fitness, particularly for the women who had to catch up a lost race from the previous schedule.

Despite the rigours, three-time Olympic medallist from The Netherlands Marit Bouwmeester extended her lead today.

“Marseille is quite tricky, so if you told me I’d have this kind of start to the regatta I would have definitely signed up to it. 

“I do like the variety of conditions, the strong winds, light winds, and it’s a bit of everything. And I always find that that maybe suits me, but we’ll see what’s happening the next few days.

“Three races was quite a tough day but I really enjoyed the downwind legs. They just went by too quickly as the current was pushing us along so the upwinds were a bit longer. But I’m happy how things are going and hopefully I can maintain this level.”

Reigning World and Olympic Champion, Anne-Marie Rindom of Denmark had to dig deep today, due to not feeling well. “It was dream conditions. I mean, I love this but there is also a lot of pressure on to do well and I haven’t had the start that I was hoping and obviously with already a discard. So it’s just really tough.

“Everyone is so fast in this fleet.  I definitely feel like I had to catch up a little bit today, but I am super fast so I shouldn’t be worried at all. But obviously, the nerves got to me a little bit today and not feeling super good in general, with just being a little bit sick or slightly nervous.

“I’m happy about the day because I really go out there and I take some brave decisions and that’s how I want to be as a sailor. For example it it’s a pin end start, obviously, that is a high risk start. But if that’s the best strategy for the day, then I have to go down there and fight for it.”

Big surprise package of the day was Hannah Snellgrove, the British sailor who won the first two races of the strong wind session and moves up to third overall.

“It felt like a bucket list ticking-off moment when you win a race at the Olympics. And then I did it again which is really cool. Unfortunately I couldn’t do it in the third race but I guess you can’t have too much of a good thing,” she laughed. “I hit the pin end at the start and had to do turns, so getting back to 14th was very hard work. It was a bit of a silly error, but overall today was a massive confidence boost and I’m really happy with my speed. 

“That’s my favourite conditions, big waves, big wind, super fun. I mean, even even in an ILCA 6 we get to surf a little bit, you know, so can’t complain!”

Matt Wearn extended his advantage at the top of the Men’s Dinghy standings with first and second in the two races today.

Great Britain’s Michael Beckett enjoyed his best day of racing so far with two fourths moving him up to second overall. Cyprus’ Pavlos Kontides trails Beckett by just two points after finishing tenth and fifth today.

Beckett said: “Obviously I’d seen the forecast that said today was going to be big. We went a long way out almost to the back of the bay.

“The waves were absolutely massive, the breeze was up but still quite unstable. Just doing everything in the sights of those waves, made it quite a biblical day really. I enjoyed it.”

How it works:

Medals for the Women’s and Men’s Dinghy (ILCA 6 and ILCA 7) will be decided by the cumulative results of the 40-strong fleet over 10 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 sailor with the smallest overall points total will win gold.