Fickle Mediterranean winds set the stage for tense finales to three of the Olympic sailing events, with the men's and women's dinghy medal races pushed back to Wednesday, when officials will also try to wrap up the mixed dinghies and multihulls.
Dinghy
The final result of the men’s and women’s dinghy competition will have to wait one more day. The Olympic race committee spent five long hours on the water hoping an adequate breeze would fill in off Marseille, France. But the wind did not cooperate and, at about 5 p.m. local time, the committee postponed the racing until Wednesday.
The gold and silver medal winners, meanwhile, have been decided already, as the Netherlands' Marit Bouwmeester and Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom have clinched their spots atop the women's dinghy podium.
But the bronze medal is still up for grabs.
On the leaderboard, Line Flem Host (Norway) stands in third place and has a five-point lead over Maud Jayet (France) and an eight-point lead over Elena Vorobeva (Croatia). Emma Plasschaert (Belgium) has a mathematical chance for the bronze but is 12 points back in the ten-boat field. The points are doubled for the medal race.
Erika Reineke, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will be competing in the Women’s Dinghy medal race. She stands in 9th place and has a chance to move up two places in the final standings.
Kiteboarding
The kite classes were able to race thanks to their course's location about five miles offshore where the wind was steady at 7 mph.
American Markus Edegran from Mount Kisco, New York, had a solid performance with two third-place finishes in the 20-boat fleet. After seven races, Edegran stands in ninth place. Toni Vodisek (Slovenia) leads by three points ahead of 17-year-old Max Maeder from Singapore.
The women’s kiteboarding division ran one race on Tuesday, and it was a strange one. Six of the sailors were unable to start the race and were scored with 21 points, which will likely be a discard race for those six. Lauriane Nolot (France), set a blistering pace and won by 18 seconds over Annelous Lammerts (Netherlands). The sailors took 10 minutes to complete the four-mile course with an average speed of 24.6 knots.
(Absorb this fact: The IKA Formula Kites are able to sail more that three times the speed of the wind!)
Nolot and Lammerts are tied with 12 points and American, Daniela Moroz from Lafayette, California, is in third place — five points back. The kites have one more day of racing and can potentially have four races in the opening series with the medal races scheduled for Thursday. If the wind is not suitable, the race committee can utilize the reserve day on Friday to finish races.
Mixed Multihull
The mixed multihull class got in two races Tuesday to complete their opening series. Ruggero Tita and Caterina Marianna Banti of Italy have a comfortable 14-point lead over Mateo Majdalani and Eugenia Bosco (Argentina).
Two boats, raced by John Gimson and Anna Burnet (Great Britain), and Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson (New Zealand) are tied with 47 points each in third place. The crew in fifth place from the Netherlands is mathematically out of medal contention, but it should be a serious race between New Zealand and Great Britain for the bronze medal.
A big day in sailing is set for Wednesday with medal races scheduled in four classes: men’s dinghy, women’s dinghy, mixed dinghy and mixed multihull. All races will be broadcast on Peacock.
The forecast for Wednesday again calls for light again.
Reuters contributed to this report