HAMPSHIRE'S Nick Thompson believes the Laser class is going to go to the wire in Rio.

Southampton-born Thompson followed up a disappointing 24th in the opening race of the day with a seventh on huge swell in the South Atlantic Ocean yesterday to slip to fourth in the overall standings.

The Lasers are scheduled to contest their final two races of the 10-race opening series today before Monday’s scheduled Medal Race. And with that race worth double points, the 30-year-old double World champion wants to ensure he is in the position to still be going for gold heading into that showdown.

He said: “The points are still pretty close and everyone still has big ‘counter’ scores as discards so realistically I'll probably have to knock in a good first race tomorrow, go from there and see what the points are like.

“It's so close all the way down and everyone is going to be battling away. I'll have a sit down with my coach and make a plan.

“I always knew it was going to be down to the wire and go down to the Medal Race and I just wanted to be in the mix, which I am, so even though I'm frustrated with throwing away quite a few points around the race course I'm sure everyone would say the same thing."

The Lasers ventured out on to the Copacabana ocean course amidst moderate breeze but huge swells and up to 10ft waves, which led to delay in starting as the race committee moved the courses further out to sea.

When they did get back underway Thompson got off to a poor start, struggling up the first beat and rounding the first mark in 29th before clawing five places back to finish 24th. In race two he stayed comfortably around the top 10 and taking seventh.

He added: “We were expecting a little bit more breeze than we got. I was thinking it was going to be another 'yeehaw' day, another good flight around the racecourse, but it turned out to be actually quite light and very tricky.

“There was a huge shift range and a huge wind range, so it was a very tough day. The first race didn't go particularly well, I didn't get on the right side of the first shift on the first beat, and then tried to battle my way back through but couldn't get back through the fleet. Then the second race I turned it around and had an okay result. "It’s mixed emotions. I’m a bit frustrated with, but that's the nature of this venue and we knew that coming into it.”

The current leader is Tonci Stipanovic (CRO), with home hero Robert Scheidt (BRA) and Tom Burton (AUS) occupying bronze medal position. Only 12 points separate the top four positions.

The Laser class is scheduled to contest an 11 race series, with two races per day on 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13 August before the final one off medal race on Monday 15 August.