Tauranga sailor Sam Meech will go into the Olympic Laser medal race wellplaced for a bronze after winning the final fleet race in the men's single-handed fleet at Rio 2016.

Fellow Tauranga sailor Peter Burling and his sailing partner Blair Tuke retain the overall lead going into the scheduled reserve day for skiff sailors.

Sam Meech. File.

And New Zealand's women's skiff pair of Alex Maloney and Sam's sister Molly Meech won a race today, and returned solid keepers in three others, to climb into 3^rd overall, tied on points with 2^nd place.

Nacra team Gemma Jones and Tauranga's Jason Saunders also had a solid day and retain 4^th overall and well in the mix for a podium finish with one more day of qualifying to go.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. File.

Sam, 25 will go into the Laser medal race lying 3^rd overall and well positioned to take a podium finish with a nine point gap on France's Jean Baptiste Bernaz in 4^th.

Today proved critical for those competing in the largest fleet of the Olympic sailing regatta and the young kiwi, who is at his first Olympic Games, came out on the right side of it claiming his first Olympic race win in race ten.

'It's fantastic to be going into the medal race with a bib – that was my goal from the start of the week so I'm really stoked with that,” said Meech referring to the fact he is placed in the top three and will wear the red bib for the medal race on Monday in Brazil.

Looking at the score-card ambitious Meech commented, 'I'm kinda regretting those ten points I lost on the third day but that's sailing you know – you have good races you have bad races.”

Molly Meech. File.

Other top contenders, including local hero Robert Scheidt (BRA), and Britain's Nick Thompson suffered at least one average score today, and have slipped back in the standings.

Croatia's Tonci Stipanovic has the overall lead ten points clear of Australia's Tom Burton and will potentially focus on ensuring the Aussie doesn't steal gold from him in the deciding race. Meech would have to close a ten point gap on Burton to win silver which is achievable, but challenging.

The stage is set for an exciting top ten double-points medal race scheduled for 2pm local time on Monday 15 August.

Peter and Blair sailed four races today and came off the water pleased. The overnight leaders placed 5^th, 2^nd, 8^th and 6^th in racing today and are now halfway through their qualifying series with a reserve day tomorrow to rest.

'We didn't feel like we sailed that well, but to come away from it with four low scores we're really happy. It was a tough day, but we're happy,” says Blair.

'With four races today it was a big chunk of the fleet racing so, like we've been saying it was really solid just to keep ticking away. Certainly not as pretty as we maybe did yesterday, but we're really happy with it.”

Jason Saunders. File.

Peter reported that sailing conditions on the Aeroporto course were less shifty than yesterday on Guanabara Bay.

'It was a lot more consistent, so you only had one shot to get it right and if you were behind half way up the first beat and were pretty deep you had to deliver some pretty good racing to get back to the top five,” Peter says.

'We were really happy, from where we were in a few of the races, to get some low scores on the board and to keep it pretty clean.”

The pair end the day three points ahead of Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel (GER). The top two placed crews have opened a solid gap on the rest of the fleet with Jonas Warrer and Christian Lubeck (DEN) 15 points adrift of the Germans.

After tomorrow's rest day the 49er fleet return for two more days of qualifying, before another rest day which precedes their medal race on Thursday 18 August in Rio.

Alex and Molly also finished the day with a race win and add that with another three top five finishes to their points tally. The New Zealand women skiff pair have now pulled themselves up into 3^rd overall, tied on points with the Brazilian crew of Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze in 2^nd.

'We had a pretty consistent day and managed to win the last race so that was a really cool way to finish it off,” says Molly.

'We had glamour conditions today. Molly and my teamwork is going really well so we're really happy with how we are going,” says Alex.

'There are probably eight girls who could potentially medal and a lot of the others are really pushing hard so it's really good racing.”

Their schedule mirrors that of the men's 49er fleet, and they enjoy a rest day tomorrow before getting back into it.

Gemma and Jason sailed three races today in the Nacra event where things remain very close at the top of the fleet with just one more day of qualifying to run.

The kiwis retain 4^th overall after nine races with 51 points on the score-card, they're just two points off 2^nd place. Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli of Italy and British Sailing Team's Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves share 49 points in 2^nd and 3^rd place with the Australian cousins Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmain leading on 46 points.

In today's racing the pair placed 4^th, 8^th and 12^th. Behind the kiwis the points are close and tomorrow will be crucial for all those vying for the first ever Nacra Olympic podium.

They return for three more tomorrow then have a rest day with their medal race planned for 2pm Tuesday.

Josh Junior is in 13^th overall after eight race sin the Finn class and is hoping to sail well in tomorrow's two final qualifiers and break into the top ten positions for a start in the medal race.

It was a mixed bag for Junior today who finished 18^th in the first of the day, then rebounded with a 2^nd.

He described his day as, 'Up and down – one really good, one really bad.”

'One more day of racing tomorrow, hopefully I can get into the top ten and make the medal race – big day tomorrow.”

Both New Zealand 470 crews – Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie in the women's, and Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willox in the men's - were on a scheduled rest day today. They will both be back in action again tomorrow with three races planned in each to catch up for the loss of one race yesterday.

NZL Sailing Team current standings

1^stPeter Burling and Blair Tuke (49er) (1, 1, 5, 2, 8, 6) 3^rdSam Meech (Laser) (19, 3, 5, 6, 14, 17, 13, 6, 12, 1) 4^thGemma Jones and Jason Saunders (Nacra 17) (9, 15, 7, 5, 4, 2, 4, 8, 12) 6^thAlex Maloney and Molly Meech (49erFX) (6, 5, ) 6^thJo Aleh and Polly Powrie (Women's 470) (21DSQ, 1, 4, 1, 12) 13^thPaul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (Men's 470) (2, 10, 20, 15, 23) 13^thJosh Junior (Finn) (18, 24UFD, 14, 14, 5, 3, 18, 2)

Full results are available on the Rio 2016 website here