An Olympic medal race featuring two Team GB hopefuls was twice abandoned on Thursday afternoon due to the wind conditions off the Marseille coast.

The men’s skiff medal race was first temporarily postponed because of the change in wind conditions towards the end of the first leg – leaving race directors scrambling for a solution.

They tried to move the race to another part of the bay in the hope that conditions would improve but have now abandoned it for a second time due to a lack of wind in the area.

Great Britain’s duo James Peters and Fynn Sterritt were running in sixth during the first stint of the race, having come into it in seventh place at the end of the Opening Series.

But, they will now benefit from the race being abandoned altogether which means the event will have to restart from scratch when the wind picks up to appropriate levels.

The men’s skiff medal race was temporarily abandoned on Thursday afternoon due to the wind

Aghast, the BBC‘s commentary team claimed they had ‘never seen anything like it’.

It gives the British duo an opportunity to get off to another blistering start and retain it.

Peters and Sterritt had blasted off into first place at the beginning of the race before the Croatian, Spanish, and New Zealander crews established a lead.

Team GB’s Peters and Sterritt will benefit from the event being restarted

At the race’s stoppage, the Uruguayan boat of Hernan Umpierre and Fernando Diz were leading

Team GB need an exceptional result in the medal race and other pairs to falter if they are to step onto the podium.

Teams carry their existing points into the final, with the medal race worth double. Those scores are combined to produce their overall score and the team with the lowest number of points wins.

Spain’s pair of Diego Botin and Florian Trittel had come into the medal race at the top of the standings.