Day 2 goes swimmingly for Mills and Clark in Rio Olympics

by RYA on 12 Aug 2016 After finishing the opening day of their 2016 Olympic campaign sitting in fifth overall, the London 2012 medallists enjoyed an awesome race win in today’s opening encounter before a capsize into the South Atlantic Ocean as they approached the finish line saw them drop from first to sixth in the day’s second race.

The 470 Girls admitted they had been frustrated with their decision making off the start line in both of yesterday’s races and would be working on that overnight.

And that homework definitely paid dividends as they engineered themselves into commanding positions on both of their first beats today, as the 470s reveled in the big breeze over 20 knots and swells up to 2m outside of Guanabara Bay.

Mills and Clark’s scores now put them in bronze medal position with the 470 Women set to pass the midway point of their 10-race opening series tomorrow.

Mills said: “We’re really pleased with today. We were really fast upwind and we were leading both races, which was nice.

“Unfortunately in the second one we ended up going swimming. It was super windy, with waves picking up all the time, unfortunately I was looking at another boat and mistimed a wave slightly and that was enough for a little gust to hit us over. It was bad timing and unfortunate error.

“But on a day like today it’s a really good solid performance and were still in the mix. We’ve got three days of racing before the medal races to go so we’re really happy.”

London 2012 gold medallists, Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL), who were disqualified from race one in the protest room and so can afford no more slip ups, have taken the overall lead with Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka (JPN) in second.

The 470 Women are set to resume at 5pm tomorrow (BST). The 470 Women’s class is scheduled to contest an 11 race series, with two races per day on 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15 August before the final one off medal race on Wednesday 17 August.