After two weeks of training in steady onshore breezes, the sailors were dealt a very different and more difficult hand for the opening day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition.

It’s the eve of competition for sailing at Tokyo 2020 and the boat park has been a place of focus and precision in the final 24 hours before battle commences in the Laser, Laser Radial and Men’s and Women’s RS:X.

For most of the past five years since Rio, the fight for 470 supremacy has swung back and forth between three men’s teams - the Swedes, the Spanish and the Australians.

While it was always possible for women to compete in Olympic Events in the ‘open era’, the reality was that very few did.

The 49erFX made its first Olympic appearance at Rio five years ago, when the battle for gold and silver remained in the balance until the final stages of the Medal Race.

Since winning Olympic gold in the Men’s Skiff – 49er at Rio 2016 five years ago, Pete Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) have packed a whole lifetime of sailing achievement into their busy careers.

Five years ago, Santiago Lange and Cecilia Caranza Saroli (ARG) set the Games alight with their victory in the Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17 event at Rio 2016.

The simplest of all dinghies, and barely changed since it surfaced 50 years ago, the Laser made its first Olympic appearance at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.

With silver and gold from the past two Olympic Games, Marit Bouwmeester (NED) looks well placed to score a hat trick of medals in the Laser Radial at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Sailing Competition.

Few can relate to the agony of missing out on the Olympic podium like Lilian de Geus (NED). On Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro at the 2016 Olympic Games, the Dutch sailor missed the podium by just one point.