Light winds in Marseille pressed pause on Sam Sill’s eagerly awaited Olympic campaign as the men’s and women’s iQFoil were both postponed without further update.

Crowds had gathered at the Roucas-Blanc Marina on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and so too was Britain’s medal hopeful. “The first day of the Olympics for us has been a bit of an anticlimax,” Sills said. “You start the day thinking wow this is the Olympics, this is what we have been building up to for a long, long time but then obviously the forecast changed things.

“In Marseille you never know what’s going to happen with the wind, so you always need to have a bit of an open mind. You have to be ready for waiting, ready for howling winds, ready for anything.”

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Sills' eagerness to start can be explained by the long road he has travelled to get to the Olympic start line, having missed out on making the British team for the 2016 and 2020 Olympics on the old RS:X boards.

The introduction of the iQFoil Class for Paris 2024 turned out to be timely, so while he is eager to take to the water, he is also happy to soak up the endorphins that come from the lively crowd of spectators.

“When we launched, oh my god it was incredible,” he said. “Just the roar of everyone cheering and shouting was something I’ve never seen before in surfing.

“It’s a shame we didn’t manage to actually race, that would have been an amazing start to the Olympics, but I'm sure we will and hopefully it will be a good spectacle.

“I saw my family, sponsors, and friends on the shore as we went along the shore - it was very special to see everyone. It gives me a lot of energy so big shoutout to everyone who came down.”

The Launceston surfer has waited 20 years for the chance to compete in a Team GB vest and has no plans to let weather conditions or delays hinder his hopes of a life-time’s best performance in Paris.

“The delay definitely puts more pressure on the athletes who are itching to go. It’ll be interesting to see how everyone responds but in terms of Team GB and myself, it’ll be all about staying in the moment, sticking to our processes, and letting the results come and go.

“The delay means we have one less discard, so it puts pressure on the fleet, but I have some strategies that I use so that I’m ready to go when I need to.”

Follow the British Sailing Team at Paris 2024 on Instagram at @britishsailing and on www.britishsailingteam.com