Reigning Olympic champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke hold a four-point lead over Great Britain after fleet racing finished today in the men's 49er Olympic regatta.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke Photo: World Sailing
The New Zealanders finished 5th, 2nd and 11th in the final three races, and will take a narrow lead into Monday's double-points medal race.
The British pair, Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell, are tied for second with Spain's Diego Botin le Chever and Iago Lopez Marra on 56 points.
There's a further 10 points back to the German combination in fourth, meaning Burling and Tuke look a good bet for a medal but there is only one colour they are aiming for.
"We are definitely a little frustrated with that last race but, nonetheless, we still gained four points on everyone around us today and it's a massive honour putting on that gold bib for the first time going into that medal race," Burling said.
"We are really excited to have another opportunity to win another gold medal for our country.
"It definitely feels like a few things haven't rolled our way this week but we have been battling back and getting ourselves in the hunt. It's been a really fun battle this week and we're just excited to round it out with one more good race."
Josh Junior is looking for another two good races in qualifying tomorrow after putting himself in a much stronger position to contend for the medals in the Finn.
He finished first and fourth in his two races today and climbed two spots to fifth overall.
The Olympic hopes of 49erFX Rio silver medallists Alex Maloney and Molly Meech ended today when they missed out of a place in the medal race.
They found themselves playing catchup after a disastrous first day and a pair of sixth placings and a 20th left them 12th overall, five points off the top 10.
Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson are also 12th in the Nacra 17 with one more day of qualifying remaining.
The men's 470 of Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox return to action tomorrow in third overall, and Sam Meech will start the Laser medal race in eighth position.
