By Will Castle
Team GB sailor Micky Beckett is ready to go hell for leather to win a medal after his men’s dinghy final was postponed.
Solva-born Beckett was meant to be sailing for a place on the podium on day 11, but his medal race fell victim to the ever-adverse Marseille weather conditions and was cancelled.
He’ll go into Wednesday’s final outside the medal places in fourth and has promised to give everything he’s got to secure Olympic hardware at the death.
“I’m currently in fourth so I’ve got nothing to lose,” he said. “Yes, I can go backwards but more importantly I can also get bronze or even silver.
“I’m only five points off bronze which means in the race tomorrow there are ten boats, and I need to finish three boats ahead of Stefano [Peschiera of Peru] who is currently in third.
“So bronze is a real possibility, and these medal races are always chaotic so anything can happen.
“I’m looking forward to it and I’ve got nothing to lose. We’ve done a lot of training around medal races and the specific types of skill needed for it.”
Marseille has thrown up its fair share of problems for sailing at Paris 2024, with unpredictable conditions at the venue causing a smattering of races to be cancelled across the Games thus far.
A handful of events will not even get to complete their opening series, putting heightened importance on each race.
Beckett has more than felt the inconvenience of the windless weather, which once again reared its ugly head on Tuesday.
He added: “It’s tough. You kind of get used to it in sailing as we’re always reliant on the wind.
“Today there isn’t any, so we’re just sat on our boats, just stewing on what needs to be done, so I guess we come back tomorrow.”
Follow the British Sailing Team at Paris 2024 on Instagram at @britishsailing and on www.britishsailingteam.com
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