Skiff medal race a bonus for NZ's Aleh and Meech

MARSEILLE: New Zealand's Jo Aleh and Molly Meech thought their Games were over and were celebrating their last sail, until an official told the duo they had made the women's skiff medal race.

"We were coming in thinking it was our last sail in the (49er) FX, so when we got ashore and someone came to us and said we're going to take your boat to quarantine, we were like, 'oh ... we made the medal race," Meech, 31, told Reuters.

Thursday's medal race is scheduled to be the first for women's sailing at this Olympics and is due to follow a finely-poised men's skiff medal race featuring the "McKiwis" Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie, who are in the mix for a medal.

Although their previous scores in the series mean the Kiwi women cannot make the podium, they are going to give it their all in the 10-boat showcase race.

"We're pretty stoked," Meech, the New Zealand crew who won silver in the skiff in Rio in 2016, said on Wednesday.

Meech's helm Aleh, 38, who won gold and then silver in the now defunct women's dinghy in 2012 and 2016, said that compared with how they had sailed at the start of the event to where the duo now stood it had been "a pretty good Games".

"We were just busy celebrating our last sail ... so we have to go out and do it again now," said Aleh.

"It's going to be fun, one more race," she said, smiling.