John Gimson and sailing partner Anna Burnet believe they are chipping away at their target of an Olympic sailing gold medal. 

The pair won silver at Tokyo 2020 in the mixed dinghy and with six races gone in Marseille, they are in sixth having not yet finished outside of the top 10. 

Six races remain before the medal race with Leicester’s Gimson, and Burnet, sitting four points off the podium. 

“We’re chipping away,” the 41-year-old said. “Often in regattas we start to come good near the end of the week and the start of the week is just about surviving and keeping the score as low as possible.  

“We’re just looking to avoid an absolute clanger and as of yet we’ve not had one. So it’s a tough race course and we haven’t sailed our best but we haven’t thrown it away either. 

“The hard thing has been that the marks were so close to the shore so you can’t see what’s coming next, so you’re hoping something will happen rather than it being a fact. 

“I see this regatta as: every day someone is falling away from the top five.  

“We just need to keep doing what we’re doing, do the details really well and it will all come out in the wash at the end of the week.” 

At Tokyo 2020, Gimson and Burnet won three of the 12 races to make to the medal race in second and kept their place behind Tita Ruggero and Caterina Banti of Italy. 

The defending champions sit comfortably in first in Marseille, 10 points ahead of Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson of New Zealand. 

Mateo Majdalan and Eugenia Bosco of Argentina afre in third spot with 21 points, just four more than Gimson and Burnet. 

Burnet added: “We’re fighting for every meter, every place on the race course. This is probably the hardest venue we’ve ever sailed.  

“Some people have found their groove and we haven’t but the second half of the regatta is going to be so different and we’ll never give up until the very end.  

“There’s always a chance and we’ll keep going for it. 

“We’re sailing in such a big wind range which is so challenging. You can't always get it right and we haven’t so far but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right in the second half.” 

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