Wandsworth’s Bryony Shaw had a day to forget finishing tenth after three races of the women’s RS:X windsurfing preliminaries yesterday, but remains in medal contention.
Shaw, 33, was the bookies’ favourite to take gold but events beyond her control hampered her performance in two of the three races on day three of Rio 2016.
She finished seventh in race one, 20th in race two and 9th in race three to score 36 points overall and remain in medal contention, with the top ten boats at the end of the fleet races qualifying for the medal race.
The world number one is 32 points off leader Charline Picon in the 12-race event, but only 18 points outside the medal positions.
She said: “I had a technical problem on my kit so I missed the start.
“In race two I was doing really well, I was second, I got a good start and I caught a bag on my fin so I catapulted because I came to a dead stop and had to recover my sail.
“I don’t know how many girls passed me. Nightmare day.”
Shaw was in excellent form leading up to Rio and was reduced to tears at the end of the race with the beyond her control events.
Prior to Rio, Shaw commented on the amount of rubbish in Guanabara Bay.
