MARSEILLE, France, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Matt Wearn and the Dutch Marit Bouwmeester edged closer to gold medals in men's dinghy (ILCA7) and women's dinghy (ILCA6), despite both having their least productive days on the water so far on Sunday.
Wearn maintained his firm grip on the ILCA7 class standings after picking up two tenth placed finishes, which means he is now 14 points ahead in the rankings.
Behind him sits the Cypriot Pavlos Kontides who moved up a spot, after placing third and seventh in the fourth day of racing. Peru's Stefano Peschiera moved back into the top three with a better outing in Marseille.
Bouwmeester opened the day with a third placed finish in race seven and then came 11th in the subsequent race, which was her weakest finish of the regatta so far. Despite the result, the Dutch sailor is still far ahead of the fleet, sitting 28 points clear of Anne-Marie Rindom.
The Danish athlete began the day with an underwhelming 15th, but recovered well to take fourth in the next race and solidify her hold over second overall. Switzerland's Maud Jayet sits in third. Gu Min of China placed 19th overall.
"This Olympics is quite the same as Rio, where you're in the middle of the bay. I'm just focusing on myself and sailing as well as possible," Bouwmeester said.
Lara Vadlau and Lukas Maehr of Austria began the day's mixed dinghy (470) competition in second, but moved up to lead the fleet, following an impressive win in race six in tricky, light winds. Spain's Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman also mastered the mild conditions, with a sixth and third, pushing them back up to second overall. China's Xu Zangjun and Lyu Yixiao stood at 16th spot.
"It was quite challenging with a super tricky wind. We tried to stay cool as much as we could and just made the best out of it and luckily it worked well. We are happy we had a good day," Vadlau said.
Italy's Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti upheld their complete dominance of mixed multihull (Nacra 17) with three consecutive wins in lighter wind. Mai Huicong/Chen Linlin from China placed 14th.
