In the 76-strong Laser fleet, Guatemala's Juan Maegli has set the early pace after recording a third and first in his opening two races on the Spanish coast.

Great Britain's Nick Thompson took the opening race win and an 18th in his second outing has him outside the medal positions at this early stage.

Maegli holds a four-point lead over American Tom Burton after he recorded a third and a fifth in his two outings.

"I had two good starts and went right both times," said Maegli, who finished ninth at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

"I had good speed and concentrated on trying to be consistent."

Defending champion Robert Scheidt of Brazil opened up with a disappointing 13th but regrouped to post a second place finish in race two.

"I did not get far enough right for the shift," said double Olympic champion Scheidt.

"I struggled to catch up and could only get back to 13th.

"I was happy to finish second in the next race."

Meanwhile in Laser Radial, Czech Veronika Fenclova and China's Min Gu matched the efforts of Maegli to record a third and first to lead the standings after day one.

Veronika Fenclova is the early pace-setter in the Laser Radial fleet in Santander
©Getty Images




After taking a year away from the water, Fenclova has only recently returned to action and she showed no signs of rustiness, leading the second race from start to finish to get her campaign off to a promising start.

"In the first race I had a good start and led at the first mark but I could not hold my position downwind and dropped to third even though we did change places several times before the finish," said Fenclova.

Gu took the opening race win and a third in the second trip sees her join her Czech rival at the top of the leaderboard.

Two more races are scheduled for tomorrow to conclude the qualification series before the field is split into gold, silver and bronze fleets.

A final six race series will be followed by a medal race.

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