As the Men’s skiff event reaches the halfway stage of the Paris Olympic regatta in Marseilles, Ireland’s Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove lie second overall in the 20-strong fleet series.
The Dublin pair were overall leaders going into the final race of the day thanks to earlier fourth and second places.
They placed eighth in the third race of the day. The light winds faded while New Zealanders Isaac Kale McHardie and William McKenzie took their third race win to move into the overall lead of the event.
The Irish crew hold a nine-point lead over the next placed crew, Spain’s Diego Botin le Chever and Florian Trittel Paul, who lodged a protest against Dickson and Waddilove that was being heard in the evening.
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In the worst case scenario – a disqualification from race eight – the Irish crew would only drop one point and still hold second overall.
However, it would mean using their valuable single race discard, which so far has only dropped a ninth place from their series.
After two days of light winds off Marseilles, Tuesday and Wednesday’s forecast is for an improvement, which will be welcomed across the event.
While most teams are predicting a high-scoring regatta, the change in weather could see this fleet series become a contest of two halves before deciding the top 10 boats to compete in Thursday’s medal race final to determine who makes the podium.
