John Gimson adds a bronze medal to his collection

Olympic silver medallist John Gimson added another medal to his CV with bronze at the Olympic Sailing Test Event in Marseille.

The 40-year-old from Leicester clinched third in the mixed multihull class alongside sailing partner Anna Burnet, roaring back from a topsy-turvy week on the water for a last-minute medal.

Marseille will become a sailing powerhouse next summer as it plays host to all sailing disciplines at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with the Test Event acting as a prime opportunity for the best sailors from around the world to get a feel for the French waters.

Gimson and Burnet pulled off a remarkable comeback in France, despite a slow start in difficult conditions, with third place in the medal race enough to catapult them into bronze.

"This week has been a bit of a rollercoaster for us," said Gimson.

"We had three days where we had two nice steady results and one bad one, so it's been incredible for us to even get ourselves back to medal contention.

"So, it's a very sweet end to a very hard week.

"We could have still won but it was a long way out of reach so realistically, we had to finish way in front of the Germans and not let the Kiwis be too far ahead.

"We had a real tussle to come away with that bronze.

"This event is a lot about learning the venue and we had some preconceived ideas from some training we had done and sometimes they worked and other times they didn't.

"It's been a good learning experience to race under pressure and understand the new race courses."

Gimson and Burnet soared to an historic silver in Tokyo, becoming the first British pair to win an Olympic medal in the mixed multihull class, a moment that the 2020 world champion continues to hold dear to his heart in pursuit of a second Games.

And Gimson will have his first chance at sealing that Olympic qualification spot at the World Championships at The Hague next month.

"I've been Olympic sailing for a long time now and it's been such a rewarding thing to do," he said.

"I love the environment; I love to represent GB and the Olympics has been a dream since childhood.

"I'm alive and living it which is why I sail.

"I'm really happy with how this week has gone and we now need to go away and review, work out what the weaknesses were and do everything we can to fix them for this time next year."

Follow the British Sailing Team at the upcoming Sailing World Championships in The Hague, Netherlands, on Instagram at @britishsailing