World number one windsurfer Bryony Shaw started her fight-back on day three of the RS:X preliminaries yesterday.
After a ‘nightmare’ start to her Olympic campaign, Wandsworth’s Shaw finished third, fifth and second in her three races, raising her position to tenth overall.
She currently has 59 points, 24 points behind the current leader, Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini who is ranked fourth in the world.
In the final three preliminary races starting today at 5.05pm, Shaw will need to impress but also hope that her rivals stutter to put her in real contention for a medal.
Before the games, Shaw was the bookies’ favourite to win the gold medal but a disastrous first day – a piece of floating trash caught on her fin in the second race – left her with a wide gap to close.
A similar disappointment on the second day left Shaw in 11th place, but her performance yesterday put her back in position to qualify for the medal race.
Shaw’s male counterpart Nick Dempsey dropped to second after finishing eighth in his final race yesterday, trailing Netherland’s Dorian Van Rijsselberghe by eight points.
Catch Shaw and Dempsey’s final preliminary races this afternoon, starting at 5.05pm.
