SEAN WADDILOVE and Robert Dickson saw a medal slip from their grasp in agonising fashion in Marseilles.
The sailors had qualified for the Men’s Skiff medal race in second place.
With points counting double in the medal race, it meant that eight of the 10 crews involved were still in medal contention and, so, there were no guarantees they could hold their lofty position.
But, even so, there was a series of disruptions which they had not bargained for and did not help their efforts to secure a podium position.
The medal race was due to take place on Thursday but because of light winds it was twice abandoned and rescheduled for Friday.
Then, they were one of three boats to cross the start line early.
After a general signal for a false start, competitors must decide themselves whether or not to restart. They did but could not recover and came ninth and, in any case, Croatia – who did not restart – were disqualified.
That saw them drop out of the medal positions to fourth.
Waddilove said: “We had a tough time on the start line, the boat below us was over the line so we had to make a decision, do we go back and clear ourselves if we were over as well, and we took that decision.
“After that, there wasn’t really much chance to get back into it. It was a fairly straightforward course so there was not much we can do.”
Dickson insisted they had no option but to return to the start line.
He said: “We knew that we were one of the most forward boats. Once the flag went up we knew we had to go back.
“We could kind of see it slipping away a bit because it was such a straightforward race couldn’t really do anything to get it back.”
It was another cruel Olympics experience for the pair who were disqualified from a race in Tokyo when their harnesses were found to be too heavy.
But Waddilove said: “It’s tough, but it can’t take away from the fact we sailed an absolutely fantastic week
“It’s been our best regatta to date, so we can be proud of that.
“It came down to a 20-minute race, but the whole week we sailed fantastically. We should be and are really proud of ourselves, there’s not many things we could have done differently this week, and it came down to a 20-minute race.”
SHADES OF DISMAY
It had shades of Annalise Murphy’s experience in London 2012 when she went into the medal race in first position only to drop to fourth. She bounced back from that with silver in Rio.
But Dickson said: “I haven’t even thought about that. We’ll have to have a think if we’re going to come back or not.”
Waddilove said: “The support has been amazing, I’ve never seen such support at a sailing competition. We’ll give it a few days to think about everything properly and process it.”
Elsewhere, Olympic debutant Eve McMahon lies 15th overall in the women’s dinghy after coming 21st in race two – discarded as her worst score – and 16th in race three.
In the men’s dinghy, Rio veteran Finn Lynch’s 26th place in race three was discarded with his 22nd in race fur meaning he lies 25th overall.