Britain's Cornish had endured a challenging opening couple of days in Spain, with 29th and 31st place results counting to his score, due to a disqualification in race four being discarded.

The high scores left Cornish some way down the standings, but he produced three excellent results on day four.

Cornish finished fourth in the opening race of the day, before triumphing in the next two to climb the rankings.

He currently lies in eighth place on 80 points, but now lies only 15 adrift of New Zealand's Josh Junior, who lies third in the open event.

The battle for the gold appears to be a straight fight between Cornish's compatriot Edward Wright and Dutch sailor Heiner.

Heiner headed into today's races with a nine point cushion over his rival.

The Dutchman recorded fourth and fifth places in two races, but a 12th place saw his lead trimmed slightly by Wright.

Wright ended third, fifth and seventh in the three races.

The results saw the Briton close the gap to Heiner to five points, with his rival leading on 32 points.

Junior is currently locked in a tight battle for bronze with Sweden’s Max Salminen, with the pair having 65 and 66 points respectively.

Brazil’s Jorge Zarif and Ioannis Mitakis both have 70, with the United States’ Caleb Paine lying three more points back.

Cornish is a further seven down.

Competition is set to continue until Saturday (March 17).