IT was a game of two halves at the Rio Olympic Test Event yesterday, with the fleets racing inside Guanabara Bay enjoying the best of the day’s conditions and those outside facing a long wait for the wind to arrive.

The British 470 crews of Hannah Mills-Saskia Clark and Luke Patience-Elliot Willis continued their steady start to this Aquece Rio International Regatta, with world champion Nick Thompson also making the best of his one race in the Laser fleet to sit second overall.

After finishing 11th in their opening race of the day inside Guanabara Bay, 2012 silver medallists Mills and Clark found top gear in their second race, crossing the line more than a minute ahead of their nearest French rivals.

They are poised third overall after four races, while in the men’s event Patience and Willis added a second and sixth to their scoresheet to put them fifth overall, just three points from the series leaders.

And double world champion Willis expects it to be a tight battle for the remainder of the week.

“Inherently the fact that it’s a small regatta fleet-wise, we’re looking at a very small points difference come the end of the week,” explained Willis of the 22-boat 470 Men’s fleet. “I think it will all come down to the medal race.

“As a personal goal, we’re looking to medal here. It would be awesome to come away with a gold and repeat last week’s performance at the South American Championships.

“All the courses here are totally different – even all the inside courses here seem to be very different from each other.

“We had an interesting day today on Escola Naval course where we saw a huge tidal gradient right the way across the course.

“The first boats out of tide made huge gains and there was an initial split. Past that it was just about keeping your lanes clean and going quick.”

The 32-year-old Willis is gunning for selection to his first Olympic Games, and his Rio experience certainly is whetting the appetite for what he hopes is to come in just under a year’s time.

He added: “I think coming here and witnessing what they’ve done for the Test Event has really added to the excitement. It shows that there’s not really much time to go.

“Luke and I feel pretty ready, we’re developing well and we’re sailing well together.”

The Nacra 17 mixed multihull fleet was also sailing inside the bay, and John Gimson and Hannah Diamond were happy with their improvements on their second day of competition.

They posted a 4-4-10 to elevate them into seventh overall going into their scheduled rest day today.

The Laser, Laser Radial, Finn and 49erFX classes faced an ultimately fruitless wait for the wind to arrive on the three courses located outside the bay, where conditions never reached more than five knots.

They were eventually relocated to the inside course areas after the other fleets had completed their schedules, with each of those four classes managing just one race in the diminishing light.

Thompson posted a second place in his Laser race to sit second overall, but in the Finn fleet it was a race Giles Scott would rather forget.

The world champion was uncharacteristically penalised for illegal propulsion after mistakenly thinking the ‘free pumping’ flag had been displayed. Scott is currently placed eighth overall after three races, with three races scheduled today in a bid to catch up with the schedule.

Alison Young is poised seventh in the Laser Radial event, with 14th from her one race of the day, while Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth picked up a seventh in their only race in the 49erFX class, raced under Sugarloaf in the late afternoon light.

They’re 10th overall, with John Pink and Stuart Bithell also 10th in the men’s 49er event.

The 49er and Nacra 17 sailors will have a rest day today, while the RS:X men’s and women’s windsurfers will start the second half of their regatta after a rest day on Monday.