Tauranga Laser sailor Sam Meech is on a rest day ahead of his 5am NZ Time medal race tomorrow.

The 25-year old Olympic debutant is in 3rd position going into the race, which counts for double-points.

Sam Meech medal racing at 5am NZ Time. Photo: Supplied.

Lying ahead of Sam in the lead is Croatia's Tonci Stipanovic, who will make history tomorrow as Croatia's first ever medallist in Olympic sailing.

The 30-year-old was 4th at the London Olympic Games and is likely to focus his race plan around ensuring Australia's Tom Burton doesn't take the gold medal – it will go to one or the other.

Sam will secure at least a bronze if he finishes in the top five, with the silver possible.

While he has a nine-point gap there are some big names behind Sam on the board including Robert Scheidt from Brazil – the 43-year-old with five Olympic medals to his name, and reigning world champion Nick Thompson from Great Britain.

The Nacra crew Tauranga sailor Jason Saunders and Gemma Jones are fifth overall with the medal race set to be sailed on Tuesday. The New Zealanders will go into the double-points quick-fire finale in 5^th place on 79 points.

The Austrian crew, lying 3rd, are seven points ahead of the kiwis who posted two 13ths and a 2nd in today's three races.

The other Tauranga sailors in the skiff crews, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in the 49er, and Molly Meech and Alex Maloney in the 49erFX have a rest day today and return for two more days of qualifying tomorrow.

Drama continues to tag the women's 470 Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie who received their second disqualification today.

Starting on the Copacabana course outside the bay they crossed firs in the first race only to learn they had been disqualified at the start.

'We sailed a pretty good race, we won across the line, and then our coach Nath told us we were over,” says Jo.

'We knew we got a good start, one of those where who knows what it was, maybe a few centimetres. There is not really much you can do about that – the race committee have the final say on these things.

'We're just trying to sail every race as good as we can – that is what we came here to do. We think we've actually done a pretty good job of that so far, but we've just had a couple of things that have swung the opposite way to what we'd like.

'We'll just keep doing that for the rest of the races and see where it ends up.”

The disqualification loads 21 points on them for race six of the series. They followed race seven with a second place.

There are three more races possible in the women's 470 qualifying series and then a double-points medal race providing Jo and Polly plenty of opportunity to post some low scores and improve.

They're now 7th overall with ten points to close on the crew currently placed in the bronze medal position. Great Britain's Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, London silver medallists, are out in the lead after seven races.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox in the men's 470 posted their best results of the regatta so far with a 5th and a 2nd in their two races, and they pull up inside the top ten as reward.

Improving to 9th overall Paul and Dan climbed four positions today, from 13th overall at the outset.

'It was nice to have a few good results after a tough week,” says Paul.

'Today was light conditions, we were out a long way offshore and the waves were a bit choppy, not much breeze and we did a pretty good job of navigating the course and keeping the boat going and staying out of any big holes out there which was challenging.

'We're pretty happy with the day.”

Tomorrow they will be back in action with races 8, 9 and 10 for the Men's 470 event scheduled if time and conditions allow.

Josh Junior had a good day in the Finn class, where the top ten are now decided for Tuesday's medal race. Britain's Giles Scott has done enough to secure the gold medal with a 24 point gap over the fleet, but will still need to sail Tuesday's race before standing atop the podium.

New Zealand's Junior had work to do today to make the top ten cut, but has done that easily by returning a 4th and a 6th. He lies 7th in the standings now, but has his eye on using Tuesday's medal race to improve his final result for Rio 2016.

Speaking after racing today Junior looked back on his regatta so far and reflected; 'Very frustrating, but you live and you learn, but I've still got an opportunity, so I will keep moving forward.

'Ten points off 4th, so that would be pretty cool.”

NZL Sailing Team current standings

1stPeter Burling and Blair Tuke (49er) (1, 1, 5, 2, 8, 6)

3rdSam Meech (Laser) (19, 3, 5, 6, 14, 17, 13, 6, 12, 1)

5thGemma Jones and Jason Saunders (Nacra 17) (9, 13, 7, 5, 4, 2, 4, 8, 12, 13, 13, 2)

3rdAlex Maloney and Molly Meech (49erFX) (6, 5, 4, 4, 5, 1)

7thJo Aleh and Polly Powrie (Women's 470) (21DSQ, 1, 4, 1, 12, 21UFD, 3)

7thJosh Junior (Finn) (18, 24UFD, 14, 14, 5, 3, 18, 2, 4, 6)

9thPaul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (Men's 470) (2, 10, 20, 15, 23, 5, 2)

Full results are available on the Rio 2016 website: https://www.rio2016.com/en/schedule-and-results

On tomorrow's schedule;

Sam Meech - Laser – Medal Race 1400

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech – 49erFX – Races 7, 8 & 9

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke – 49er – Races 7, 8 & 9

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie – W470 – Races 8, 9 & 10

Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox – M470 – Races 8, 9 & 10

Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders – Nacra 17 – Reserve day

Josh Junior – Finn – Reserve day