BRITAIN’S history-making Nacra 17 pair Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves declared themselves happy after ending day their first ever day at an Olympic Games sitting in silver medal position.

Saxton, who is based in Weymouth, and Groves picked up third and fifth place finishes from their two races, as the new Nacra 17 catamaran class became the first mandatory combined male and female Olympic sailing class.

The pair got their event off to the worst possible start being left stranded on the start line by the rest of the fleet, but in unbelievably shifting conditions on the Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf) course, they staged an incredible comeback, playing the shifts brilliantly to go from rounding the first mark in 18th to being third over the finish line.

Unlike on the outside ocean courses, which were enjoying the biggest breezes of the event so far, inside the bay it remained light hitting just five knots at times.

But, after a long postponement and a general recall, Saxton and Groves’ race two proved much less incident packed as they maintained a good position in the leading pack for the whole race.

Following another long postponement, the class’ third scheduled race of the day was not started as dusk set in and the Nacra 17s now move out on to the ocean Copacabana course from 5pm tomorrow.

Saxton said: “We are happy with how we sailed. I was just excited to actually sail at an Olympics and I was ready to get going, it’s cool. This is what we dream of, racing the best people in the world at the most important events is why we do this.

“The first start wasn’t good but we just had to accept where we were. We went round the first mark with only a couple of boats behind us, but after that we picked off a couple in each leg and then it was good.”

Groves added: “It was definitely tricky, with the wind coming out of the city but I think we did the best we could and clawed ourselves back from quite a bad start in that first race so we are happy with how we sailed.

“I was nervous but Ben knows me quite well so he said ‘Come on, time to go sailing’, so he did a good job of keeping me calm and I did it right.”

2013 Worlds bronze medallists, Matias Buhler and Nathalie Brugger (SUI), are the early event leaders with Santiago Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli (ARG), winners of 2014 Worlds silver, sitting in third.