Portland-based sailor Mickey Beckett says losing out on an Olympic medal is 'pretty tough' in wind affected race.

After seeing Tuesday's medal race postponed until Wednesday, the sailor who trains out of the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, came agonisingly close to Olympic immortality. 

Beckett came into the race in fourth place overall in the standings and was chasing down Stefano Peschiera of Peru for a Bronze medal and needed to finish above the Peruvian sailor and in the top five places in the final race.

However, whilst in second place during the race and pushing for a silver medal due to Cypriot Palos Kontides at the back of the fleet, the race was again postponed, in a cruel blow to the sailors medal hopes.

He said: "We did about 90 percent of the race and then the breeze died right at the last bit.  In that race I was coming second and I’d have got the bronze medal and it was all looking pretty good. Then obviously to have that taken away was pretty tough. But I was like, this is sport, this is sailing in particular. This does happen. Reset."

After an hour wait the race was restarted with Beckett having to do it all again in order to get a medal. 

But two penalties during the race for rocking the boat saw his hopes of claiming any medal looking slim.

He added: "I think in the last three years I’ve been penalized [for it] once and in that last race I got penalized twice for it, so that's something to think about in the future. 

"That just kind of spat me out the back of the fleet and then I was in a position where I couldn't really get back into it."

Beckett ended up finishing the medal race in tenth place which placed him sixth in the overall standings and admitted the result was 'a bit crushing' to take. 

He said: "The race chewed me up, spat me out and I went from fourth with a really good chance of bronze to sixth, which is just a bit crushing for me. 

"Sorry I'm not coming home with a medal but I'm just very grateful. It'll sink in in time but right now it's pretty tough."