Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes at the 2012 Olympics

Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes sit in the bronze medal position after the penultimate day of regular racing in the 49er class at Weymouth.

They re-ignited their medal hopes with a much improved sail in the second of the day’s two races finishing third behind the Australian boat which is now odds-on to net the top honour when the racing is completed after the medal race on Wednesday.

At the conclusion of the Sunday racing the Exmouth duo sat third with 90 points. The gold medal seems firmly in the grasp of the Australian boat (44 points) whilst silver is currently held by the New Zeeland crew (64 points). The Portuguese crew are the duos nearest challengers for the bronze medal, sitting just three points further back in the field.

It’s very close behind the Exmouth crew for in fifth place are the French (95), sixth are the Finnish crew (96) and the Danish crew are also in the medal hunt sittings seventh with 96 points.

Just two races remain before then medal race ion Wednesday. They go off in race 14 at 3pm on Monday (August 6).

The opening race of the Sunday session saw them finish 13th out of the 20 boats, crossing the line two minutes and 45 seconds after the winning boat.

The race was won by the Australian crew who finished 41 seconds ahead of the New Zealand boat with the Croatians third and the French fourth.