Cook Islands sailor Helema Williams has returned to the bottom of the women’s Laser Radial regatta despite a good finish in one of the six races completed so far.

Williams was 16th after the first three marks in the second race of day three, the sixth race overall. But a change in wind direction, however, meant the Cook Islands’ flagbearer finished the race in 28th position.

While it was easily Williams’ best race of the six – her previous highest finish was 39th in the 41-strong field – a blitzing run from the Virgin Islands’ Mayumi Roller consigned the Manihiki sailor to the bottom of the table by three points.

On a day where forecasts were predicting big winds and sailors were hoping simply to stay in the boats instead resulted in perfect, 14-knot winds as sailors licked their lips at the chance for some more tight racing.

As had been the formula throughout the regatta, Ireland’s Annalise Murphy won the opening race – her fifth in five races – with Williams well behind the pack in 40th position.

The second race proved to be a lot more competitive for the Manihiki sailor as she rounded the first three marks in 16th position. It was always going to be difficult to maintain and with a quality pack chasing her the Cook Islands sailor did well to finish in 28th position.

Williams now has a rest day before tackling the water tomorrow and Saturday for the final two days of round robin racing before the medal race on Sunday (CIT).

Swimmer Celeste Brown will be swimming tonight as she looks to etch a place in the latter rounds of the 50 metres freestyle.

It will be a tough ask but Brown will surely be looking to a personal best at the very least from her first Olympics campaign.

Having watched Payne overnight, Brown will be racing in the fourth heat of the event as her male counterpart had done.

Tepaia had yet to race at the time of print.

Track sprinters Patricia Taea and Patrick Tuara are gearing up for the greatest stage of all when they tackle the preliminary rounds of the Olympics’ glamour event – the 100 metres sprint – on Friday and Saturday of this week.

Taea will go first and with Tuara surely in support there are hopes the teenager will be able to do a personal best at the very minimum in her event.

Likewise, there’s pressure on Tuara to go under his personal best of 12 seconds flat as the Cook Islands awaits their fate.

While Williams’ Olympic campaign ends on Sunday, another athlete’s event begins.

Weightlifter Luisa Peters will compete in the women’s 75-kilogram-and-over competition and will be facing heavy competition from her Pacific neighbours.

Allowing muscles to ease and prepare for the big event on Sunday is the reason behind Peters’ training intensity having been reduced to around 65 percent.

Josh Utanga is the final athlete to represent the Cook Islands in London with the K1 1000 metres followed by the sprint-dominated K1 200 metres at the Eton Dorney course.

Slalom canoeist Ella Nicholas was the first Cook Islands athlete to be eliminated from the London Olympics, dipping out in 18th position after the heats of the women’s K1 at the Lee Valley White Water Centre.