Ireland are contesting the final European quota place in the class with Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal, Estonia, Slovenia, Turkey and Russia.

Their nearest challenger for that place at the Canary Islands venue, the Belgian pairing of Yannick Lefebvre and Tom Pelsmaekers, won the penultimate race of the day and stand ninth with 119 points, well adrift of the Irish pairing on 90.

The Belgians must excel in tomorrow's final fleet race to keep their contest with the Irish pairing alive by remaining in the top ten and qualifying for the concluding medal race, where points count double.

In the women’s 49er FX, the Belgian pairing of Isaura Maenhaut and Anouk Geurts moved ahead of their Croatian rivals in the race for the European quota place, Enia Nincevic and Mihaela Zjena of Croatia.

Nincevic and Zjena, seventh at the start of the day, dropped to tenth with 125 points as the Belgian pairing, who were just three points behind them, put together a sequence that included one second place and now stand eighth with 105 points.

In the overall 49er FX race, Brazil’s Rio 2016 champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze lead with 66 points.

In the Nacra 17 category, Sinem Kurtbay and Janne Jarvine of Finland lead the race for the final place at Tokyo 2020.

The pair maintained fifth place and sit on 102 points.

Their Greek rivals, Iordanis Paschalidis and Myrto Papadopoulou, stand ninth on 122.

Leading the race overall are Spanish pairing Tara Pacheco and Florian Trittel on 40 points.

The contending European nations in the 49er FX class are Sweden, Italy, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Belgium and Russia.

In the Nacra 17 class the European place is being chased by competitors from Finland, Croatia, The Netherlands, Greece, Poland, Hungary and Russia.

The regatta is due to conclude tomorrow.