Mills and Clark get off to solid start in Rio

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark on day 3 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition © Richard Langdon / British Sailing Team

London 2012 silver medallists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark showed their steely side as they ended the first day of their Rio 2016 regatta sitting in sixth overall today (Wednesday 12 August).

The pair battled back from iffy first legs in both of their two races, and used all of their major Championship experience and racing nous to work their way through the fleet to post solid opening scores of fourth and seventh place finishes.

Only early leaders Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka (JPN) and home favourite Fernanda Oliveira and Ana Lui Barbachan (BRA) finished twice inside of the top five.

But unlike other classes, which have seen a big spread of results between races when racing on the inside courses, the 470 Women found much greater opening day consistency with every boat in the top seven finishing 12th or higher in each race.

With the 470 Women set to do battle on the notoriously unpredictable Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf) course and the Ponte course, both inside Guanabara Bay, tomorrow, Mills and Clark know they are in for a real test of concentration, skill execution and adaptability as the week progresses.

Clark said: "It was a very tricky day. We made a poor first decision off the line in both races, we got the wrong side of the first wind shift and then we were just playing catch up, which we did a reasonable job of. That is our debrief point from today.

"A few of the girls put together two good races, but it's just the start and we are expecting much more of the same. The Sugarloaf course is going to be crazy so we just need to keep our heads and try to just tighten up. It might look like a good day at the end of this week. So far both of them are counters.

"Watching the two days already, there are some very good people struggling and really fighting in the pack, not pushing their noses out the front, and it's going to be a big, epic week so we are just going to need to keep fighting."

London 2012 gold medallists, Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (NZL) currently sit in second behind the Japanese girls with Tina Mrak And Veronika Macarol (SLO) in third.

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.

To follow the 470 Girls' fortunes at Rio 2016 visit www.rya.org.uk/Rio2016, follow @BritishSailing on Twitter and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/britishsailingteams