Portuguese sailors Carolina Joao and Diogo Costa qualified for the 470 class medal race at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Tuesday, finishing the trip in fifth place overall.
In Marseille, the Portuguese pair were second in race seven and eighth in the following race, with the final two races of the day cancelled, scoring a total of 49 points in a competition led by Austrians Lara Wadlau and Lucas Mehr on 24 points.
The 470 class medal race is scheduled for Wednesday at 15:30 local time (14:30 Lisbon time), with points earned in the deciding race worth double.
The Portuguese duo currently have 49 points, 14 points behind Japan’s Keiju Okada and Miho Yoshioka in third place. Spaniards Jordi Hammar Hernandez and Nora Brugman Cabot are in second place with 31 points.
The chance of reaching the medals was almost impossible for the Portuguese, who had to take one of the top two places in the medal race and hope that the pairs ahead of them would finish in the last places.
Carolina João and Diogo Costa needed to be eight places ahead of the Japanese duo and six above Sweden’s Anton Dahlberg and Lovisa Karlsson, who are fourth with 39 points.
The Portuguese, however, are in a very good position to guarantee an Olympic diploma reserved for the top eight, currently 13 points ahead of Australians Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas (ninth) and 15 points ahead of Brazilians Henrique Duarte Haddad and Isabelle Swan, who are in 10th place.