New Zealanders Jo Aleh, left, and Molly Meech were about to celebrate their final sail when an official informed them that they were in the medal race for the women's sailing skiff.

Meech, 31 said, "We thought it would be our last sailing in the 49er FX. So when someone told us that we will take your boat into quarantine we were shocked. We were thinking, 'oh, we won the medal race.'"

The medal race for sailing women is set to take place on Thursday. It will follow the men's race for the skiff, which features the McKiwis Isaac McHardie & William McKenzie who are both in contention for a gold medal.

The Kiwi women will give their best effort in the 10 boat showcase race, despite the fact that their scores from the previous series have prevented them from making the podium.

Meech said, "We are pretty excited" on Wednesday. The New Zealand team that won the silver medal in Rio 2016 in the skiff was Meech.

Meech's 38-year-old helm Aleh won silver and gold in the women's now defunct dinghy event in 2012 and 2016. He said the Games had been "pretty good" compared to how the pair had performed at the beginning of the competition.

Aleh said, "We just celebrated our last sailing... now we must go and do it all again."

She said with a smile, "It will be fun to do one more race." Reporting by Alexander Smith, Editing by Tom Hogue

(source: Reuters)