Vita Heathcote and her mixed dinghy partner Chris Grube are hoping for better conditions on day two of their Olympic sailing competition. 

The pair lie in 11th after six races with two top-five finishes but their second day on the water proved trickier. 

A 12th-place finish in the day’s first race was followed by a disqualification in the second race for starting under a black flag. 

“It was a tricky day,” Heathcote said. “Quite light winds. It started off quite nice and then dropped quite quickly.  

“It was a very messy and choppy sea. We struggled a bit to get our rhythm in the first race and figured out what was going on.  

“Second race we got into it and ran a really nice race but unfortunately we were disqualified. 

“The hard thing is that this course isn’t what you’d expect. We’ve all been here for three summers, we’ve built up good venue knowledge, raced all the courses in all conditions, we’ve got a feel for it. We all have.

“And then a week like this happens and it’s 30 plus degrees all our prior knowledge goes out the window.  

“And that makes it hard to get your head around what’s going to happen and how you set yourself up for the day and how you approach it. Often it’s just not what you think.” 

A new pair put together before Paris 2024, Southampton’s Heathcote is making her Olympic debut in Marseille. 

Grube is a veteran of sailing and this marks his third Games, having finished fifth at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 in the men’s two-person dinghy. 

And it is that experience that is giving him a balanced outlook ahead of the final four races of the competition, with only the top 10 making it into the medal race. 

He added: “Sometimes in life and in sport you have bad days and it’s just how you bounce back from that.  

“We’ve seen Marseille is an interesting venue so there are opportunities all over the course to come back.  

“We’re halfway through so there’s still opportunities on the table to come back. We’re still positive It’s been a tough day but we take that on the chin and try to bounce back. 

“I think we stay open-minded. This track is all about awareness, keeping your head out of the boat, looking for pressure.  

“We keep pushing hard and hopefully we can get in the medal race.” 

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