Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark admitted they needed to overcome a sloppy start to stay on course for another Olympic medal in Rio.

Welsh sailor Mills and Clark finished on top of the leaderboard on Sunday night in the 470 class.

But the pair who won silver in London four years ago and are desperate to go one better this time, got it wrong in the first of their three races of the day.

Clark said: “We were pleased with our day overall but we made a bit of a mistake in the first one; we really knocked in a really solid race but went to the finish line instead of the leeward gate.

“But we were actually really pleased with how we got our heads around that and got our heads back in the game for the final race and got a first.

“It’s a big day tomorrow, three races so that’s another 60 points it is possible to get on the scoreboard.

“We’re on the Escola Naval course, which is tight, tricky racing so we will keep our heads down, try to stay solid and see what we leave the day with.

“The chasing pack aren’t that far behind and everyone really wants this badly so we have to just keep to what we know, keep doing our processes and go from there.”

The Great Britain crew followed up a first race eighth with a victory in the two of the three races to remain at the top of the leaderboard, with Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha (USA) four points behind.

But having enjoyed the stable breeze outside of Guanabara Bay on the Copacabana ocean course , the class is now set to move back inside the bay onto the Escola Naval course for another three races.

The 470 Women’s class is scheduled to contest an 11 race series, with two races per day on 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15 August before the final one off medal race on Wednesday 17 August.

Mills, 28, from Cardiff, and Clark had to settle for silver behind New Zealand in London four years ago.