Simon Hiscocks and Chris Draper guaranteed Great Britain their fourth sailing medal of the Olympic Games today.
The British pair finished a punishing day’s 49er sailing in third place overall and, with just one race remaining, cannot be caught by America, who are currently fourth.
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Hiscocks and Draper have a chance of gold too, but to become Olympic champions they must win on Thursday and current leaders Spain must finish 12th or lower.
Although that might be unlikely, they do stand a definite chance of silver with Ukraine only two points ahead in second place.
But crucially, Britain could finish last or be disqualified in the final race and still do no worse than complete the regatta on 82 points, while a victory for America on Thursday would leave them with 83.
And Britain are also on course to become the most successful sailing nation for a second successive Olympics after already reaping two golds and a silver.
The colour of the fourth will be determined in the 16th and final race of a tight, engaging competition on Thursday.
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The 49ers had three races scheduled for today, the toughest single day of racing in the whole Olympic regatta.
It could hardly have been better for the Brits, who started this afternoon in second place and moved to within two points of the Spanish after winning the first race, the 13th of the regatta.
Britain secured a wire-to-wire victory even though they never enjoyed more than a 10-second lead at any point during the race.
But they held on to cross the line six seconds ahead of Australia, with Poland third and Spain back in eighth place.
After a brief postponement for a shifting course, race 14 got underway and Britain this time were never in contention, rounding the first marker in 14th place nearly two minutes down.
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Hiscocks and Draper did improve and drove through to ninth but with Australia winning it meant only 16 points separated Britain in second with the United States in fifth.
America then required a leading performance to ensure the top three did not cast the rest of the field adrift, and they duly won the final race of the day.
But they had not counted on a masterful final leg from the Brits. Hiscocks and Draper had been at least half a minute behind the leaders at each marker but staged a late charge to overtake Greece and clinch sixth to seal yet another medal on the water for Britain.
“We were pretty upset when we came in. We are a bit disappointed but you have got to be positive and we could still win it,” said Draper.
“I think it is fairly unlikely but we will go out and do everything we possibly can on the last race.
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“We will just concentrate on trying to sail another race and a good race and hopefully things will take care of themselves. That’s all we can really do from now onwards.
“We didn’t feel we sailed our best those last two races.
“A gold medal is what we wanted though.”
After days of a predominantly sea breeze, the notorious Meltemi wind - a northerly which funnels down from the mountains around Athens - arrived with consistent force and was ideal for the Brits.
Iain Percy yesterday said how much he and Steve Mitchell would benefit in the Star class from a more familiar breeze and today registered their best result of the regatta.
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The world champions finished third in the sixth of 11 races to move into seventh place overall and close in on the leaders.
Britain’s performance was doubly satisfying given they were able to close in on the medal hunt as the likes of America, Denmark and Switzerland came home mid-fleet.
With the race won by Sweden, who are trailing in 12th overall, and France second, Britain leapfrogged Australia and Spain.
Only 16 points separate Percy and Mitchell in seventh from Brazil, who currently occupy the gold medal position with five races remaining.