Sir Ben Ainslie may not be gracing Rio’s waters after three straight Olympic titles in the Finn class but Giles Scott is ready to continue Great Britain’s dominance in the event on Tuesday.
Scott has already won two Rio test events and the past three Finn world titles, making him a heavy favourite at his first Games after the 29-year-old watched Beijing and London from dry land.
And with a reputation for winning regattas with races to spare, he will be keen to get off to a fast start with two races to contest.
Nick Thompson, Alison Young, Bryony Shaw and Nick Dempsey all race again with the latter aiming to build on his two race wins and a second on the opening day of the regatta.
Like Scott, another man hoping to do well in two races will be David Florence, who is bidding to win a debut Olympic gold when he goes in the C1 semi-finals at the Whitewater Stadium.
Florence, a silver medallist in the discipline from Beijing, must finish among the top ten fastest boats if he wants a chance to go for gold in the final.
In the pool, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor qualified fastest into the women’s 200m individual medley final with a national record and personal best, even outperforming pre-race favourite Hungarian Katinka Hosszu.
The women’s artistic gymnastics team will be hoping to go one better than the men when they compete in the team final.
The squad of Ruby Harrold, Amy Tinkler, Claudia Fragapane and Ellie and Becky Downie will be looking for a repeat of the performance that helped them win World Championship bronze in 2015.
Tonia Couch and Lois Toulson will see if their nine-month old partnership can stand up to the pressures of an Olympic Games when they go in the women’s 10m synchro.
A silver medal and two bronzes from recent Diving World Series events underline their promise as a partnership.
Andy Murray and Johanna Konta will carry Britain’s hopes of a tennis medal when they are both in singles action.
Flagbearer Murray takes on Juan Monaco of Argentina in the men’s second round, with Konta looking to down Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova to book a place in the women’s fourth round.
Things begin to hot up at Lagoa as the men’s pair, double sculls and lightweight four all face semi-finals, while Alan Campbell has a quarter-final to negotiate in the single sculls.
Katherine Grainger and Victoria Thornley have a double sculls semi-final and Kat Copeland and Charlotte Taylor will look to recover from a poor heat in the lightweight double sculls repechage.
In the hockey, Britain’s men will look to revive what has been an underwhelming start to their tournament when they take on hosts Brazil, who suffered a 12-0 defeat to Belgium last time out.
While the men’s rugby sevens side will be looking to start the pool stages with a bang when they take on Kenya and Japan.
William Fox-Pitt and company will be looking to revive both individual and team medal hopes in the show-jumping phase of the eventing, while lightweight Joe Cordina boxes Uzbekistan’s Hurshid Tojibaev for a place in the quarter-finals.
And judoka Alice Schlesinger begins her quest for a medal in the -63kg category against Korean Jiyun Bak in the round of 32, with Naomi Folkard also entering the knockout phase of the women’s archery.
Image courtesy of boats.com via YouTube, with thanks.
