By Will Castle

Team GB sailor Connor Bainbridge is ‘heartbroken’ after seeing his chances to thrive on the Olympic stage limited by adverse weather in Marseille.

Halifax’s Bainbridge was one of the many to fall victim to a lack of wind on the south coast of France on Tuesday.

After earning a pair of 11th-place finishes in his first two men’s Formula Kite races of the day, his scheduled third was cancelled, unable to get going due to the insufficient conditions.

It now looks highly likely that Bainbridge’s class will not complete its entire 16-race series, putting heightened pressure on each outing.

“I think it's just quite frustrating,” he said. “Our standard series is 20 races, for this Olympics it was reduced down to 16 and we've only done seven now and we're three quarters of the way through the event.

“There's no way of getting more than 12 now so it is frustrating as we are approaching the end.

“Just not getting enough races in and not really being able to show what we can do is pretty heartbreaking.”

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.

Bainbridge has more than felt the inconvenience of the windless weather, which once again reared its ugly head on Tuesday.

Speaking on the difficulty of kiting without wind, he said: “We have 23-meter kite and they're huge, they're really slow to manoeuvre.

“We're constantly on the edge. Although it looks like we're kind of out there chilling out and waiting for our next race, actually, one second of a drop in concentration can mean that we're swimming and that's our day over.

“The committee rightly pushed us into more wind and pushed us further and further out. But if we have a lapse of concentration for one second, then that could be our day over.”

Bainbridge was unhappy with his performance on day 11 of the Games, but as he sits in eighth overall, he remains confident in his ability that he can turn things around and push for a medal.

“I'm in eighth at the moment after two pretty shocking races today,” he said. “I just had some big problems with the starts, I couldn't really get off in good breeze.

“The beauty of our racing is it isn't over until the last day and I'm confident that I can beat anyone in this fleet in the final series in a four-boat regatta.

“So, I think for me now, what I'm focusing on is putting myself in the best position so I can attack that final.”

Follow the British Sailing Team at Paris 2024 on Instagram at @britishsailing and on www.britishsailingteam.com