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Here is how South Florida sailors Pascual, Hughes, Weis did at Tokyo Olympics

Miami sailor Pedro Pascual advanced to the Tokyo Olympics medal race in the RS:X sail board class on Thursday, far surpassing his performance from four years ago in Rio.

A seventh place in the final full-fleet race clinched the career milestone for Pascual, who finished 28th in Rio and did not made the medal race.

“In the final race, I just knew that I had to keep my confidence up, and not worry about the medal race too much,” Pascual said. “The first two races didn’t go my way, and I figured it couldn’t be three in a row.”

Pascual earned six single-digit finishes through 12 races so far after never fishing higher than 20th in Rio.

“It’s been a hard five years,” said Pascual. “I made a commitment to improving after Rio, and I’m proud and excited to represent Team USA in the medal race on Saturday.”

Saturday’s RS:X medal race will feature 10 competitors, and will count for double points. Pascual enters the medal race in ninth overall with a chance to move up to eighth.

Pascual spent his early childhood in Spain, where his father taught him to sail. He moved to Saudi Arabia as a teenager when his father, an industrial engineer, was transferred there. He then moved to Miami and studied mechanical engineering at Florida Atlantic University.

In the Men’s 470, Miami sailor Dave Hughes and four-time Olympian Stu McNay (Providence, Rhode Island) finished 9, 10 on the day, and sit in 11th overall. The fourth-place finishers from Rio displayed their speed in both races but struggled at times.

McNay and Hughes rounded the first mark of Race 3 in third, but fell to ninth at the finish in a deep class featuring a 13-point spread between third and 12th places overall. In Race 4, the veteran pair had a tough start, rounded the first mark in 15th, but recovered to 10th.

In the Nacra 17, Fort Lauderdale sailor Anna Weis and Riley Gibbs (Long Beach, California) rounded the first mark of Race 6 in the lead. They finished with a 6, 1, (13) on the day, and sit in 10th overall.

Weis said that racing a foiling class in big swells requires both mental and physical resilience. “It’s pretty full on,” she said. “You have to really be ‘on it’ every second. You can’t let up your focus for one instant. As the race goes on, and you get tired, it becomes a bigger mental challenge, but a rewarding one if you can keep the hammer down.”

The sailing events are being streamed on NBCOlympics.com