THE British Sonar team are refusing to give up on their Rio medal dream after a race disqualification dented their podium hopes yesterday.

After Wednesday’s three race win heroics had propelled them towards the upper echelons of the Sonar leaderboard, provisional fifth and sixth place finishes on the Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf) course yesterday moved them into the medal spots.

But John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas quickly saw their hope turn to despair, when after learning there were two protests against them, from the USA and the Equipment Inspection Committee, in the first race of the day, they were ultimately disqualified from that race having a big impact on the overall positions.

The Brits now sit on 43 points in eighth overall and eight points behind Canada’s Paul Tingley, Logan Campbell and Scott Lutes who currently occupy the final podium spot.

Having turned on the afterburners yesterday, Stodel insists now they have to just try to replicate that form in the final three races tomorrow and Saturday and see where it leaves them.

She said: “All we can do is go and pull another day like Wednesday and climb back up the leaderboard as much as we can and salvage the rest of the regatta.

“It wasn't the best outcome to our day unfortunately, adding a DSQ to our series score, which is going to hurt. It could have gone either way in the room but unfortunately it didn’t go in our favour.

“I don't mind accepting when we're wrong, but this one is a little hard to swallow as we don’t believe we are.”

The Sonars are scheduled to have two more races today, before one final showdown of the scheduled 11-race series tomorrow, after which the medals will be awarded.