BRITISH sailors occupy 12 podium positions heading in to today’s medal race day at the Sailing World Cup Weymouth and Portland.

Five boats from Britain’s 10 Rio representatives take the yellow leaders’ jerseys into the final day of competition, with a further seven British Sailing Team crews in podium positions ahead of the double-points final races.

With a shortened race series due to persistent light wind conditions throughout the week, tight points margins will give rise to some nail-biting battles for the medal spots at this final showdown before the Rio 2016 Games.

Olympic contenders Giles Scott, Nick Thompson, Luke Patience and Chris Grube and Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves and Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth all lead their respective events, with Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark tied on points at the top of the 470 Women’s table and Ben Cornish snapping at Scott’s heels just a point behind him in the Finn class.

Light wind conditions prevailed on Saturday’s penultimate day of competition, with racing continuing late into the evening.

Saxton and Groves enjoyed the best possible scoreline in the Nacra 17, winning both of their two races around a minute ahead of their nearest rivals to take a seven point overall lead into the medal race.

Dobson and Ainsworth sandwiched a sixth between two race wins to head in the 49erFX finale in pole position.

They have just a two point buffer ahead of Sweden’s Julia Gross-Cecilia Jonsson, with Ainsworth pleased to come through a testing three-race day in good shape.

Patience and Grube sailed a solid three races to hold on to their yellow jerseys going in to the final day. The 470 Men’s pairing is tied in the standings with Spain’s Jordi Xammer-Joan Herp, with Croatian World Champions Sime Fantela-Igor Marenic six points behind in bronze medal position.

Scott edged one point ahead of his teammate and training partner Cornish with a win in the Finn fleet’s sole race of the day, while double world champion Thompson takes a single point advantage into the Laser medal race.

In the 470 Women’s event, two British teams will also start the medal race in the podium spots. Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark are second overall, level on points with the leading Swiss team, while Amy Seabright and Anna Carpenter are in third. Emma Wilson and Izzy Hamilton are also second and third overall heading into the women’s RS:X windsurfing finale, and sit just a point apart.

Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign qualified for the 49er medal race in third place, 10 points from the New Zealand leaders, while John Pink and Stuart Bithell are just three points from the podium spots in fourth.

Tom Squires is the leading British men’s RS:X windsurfer, in fifth place going into the final day, while Alison Young will end her regatta in 15th place, missing out on the medal race cut.

Today’s medal races, which will be screened live on BT Sport in the UK, on the BBC Sport website and online via the British Sailing Team website, will kick off from 11am.