Triple Olympic medallist
Ben Ainslie is guaranteed at least a Finn silver medal after the only race for the class on a difficult day in Qingdao (Friday 15 August).
The Yngling trio of
Sarah Ayton,
Sarah Webb and
Pippa Wilson have also ensured a medal for Team GB - a minimum of silver as long as they finish their medal race without incident - with a nail-biting showdown for gold on the cards with the Dutch trio of Mandy Mulder, Annemieke Bes and Merel Witteveen in the women's keelboat event.
The day started in frustrating fashion for Team GB's sailors, with a delay of almost four hours before racing could finally get underway.
With a cut off time of 16.00 to get the Finn and Yngling classes started, there was plenty of tension on course E for those sailors on the brink of the medal race places.
Ainslie saw a good start to what turned out to the only race of the day, leading for most of the race and eventually crossing in second place. A 19th place for his nearest rival Zach Railey (USA), means the triple Olympic medallist Ainslie goes into tomorrow's double points-scoring medal with a 12-point advantage over the American.
However, with 23 points separating Ainslie in first and Sweden's Daniel Birgmark in third, it means the Brit cannot finish lower than second overall, and to win gold, Ainslie can afford to finish five boats behind Railey to still keep hold of his Olympic crown.
Asked about his tactics heading into tomorrow's medal race, Ainslie replied: "Stick to [Zach] like glue I would have thought, especially with this venue!
"I just hope we get some decent breeze - I hope it's not too light and fluky. But certainly I'll be keeping a very keen eye on Zach and try not to get too far away from him.
"But it's not over yet by a long way, so I'm looking forward to getting out there and sailing a good race tomorrow," Ainslie concluded.
Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson are also guaranteed a medal in the Yngling class going into their medal race with the narrowest of one-point margins over the second-placed Dutch boat.
Ayton's crew scored a fifth place in their only race of today but with the Dutch crew of Mulder, Bes and Witteveen winning the race, the Brits' five-point advantage going in the race had been reduced to one by the end of it, teeing up a riveting medal race showdown tomorrow.
Gold will be guaranteed if the Brits finish ahead of the Dutch while it will be silver if they finish behind their rivals. Only a disqualification or failure to finish the race, with the Greek team winning the medal race, would see the Brits finishing with anything less than silver.
On their race result today, Wilson revealed: "It's a great position to be in, going into the medal race - it's just us and the Dutch, who beats who for gold and silver.
"We put enough pressure on ourselves to win gold every day that we sail," Wilson continued. "It's great to be in this position, but we want gold so we'll do everything we can to make that happen.”
Elsewhere among Team GB's sailors, European Champion
Paul Goodison has found himself at the top of the Laser class leaderboard, thank to a race win in the only race of the day for the single-handed class.
Nick Dempsey picked up his first bullet of the regatta in the men's RS:X windsurfing event, moving up to third, while Britain's Star and Tornado crews finally got their regatta underway with one race apiece on Friday.
Leigh McMillan and
Will Howden posted a sixth in the catamaran event, while Sydney gold medallist Iain Percy and crew Andrew Simpson finished seventh in their opening race of the men's keelboat class.
Penny Clark saw a 22 in the sole race for the Laser Radial class today, but should improve on her overall position of 10th once she can drop her worst result after the fifth race for the fleet tomorrow, while windsurfer
Bryony Shaw was also frustrated to have been called up for a premature start in the RS:X women's only race on Friday. She's in fifth place overall.
In the 470 men's event,
Nick Rogers and
Joe Glanfield have slipped just outside of the medal zone with a 20th in their sole race of the day - they're currently fourth. The 49ers saw no action today.
Go to www.teamgb.com and click on 'Results' to view all the latest Team GB results. Click on 'Team GB' to view profiles of all Team GB athletes.
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