Australian sailors have defied the Sydney heat to secure two more quota spots for the Paris Olympics.
Mixed 470 pair Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas won both Sail Sydney races in 38-degree heat on Thursday to pull 34 points clear of Oceania rivals New Zealand.
It means that, unless they cop penalties for false starts in Friday's medal races, they have secured Australia a berth at the Marseille Marina next July.
Brin Liddell and Rhiannon Brown then won the Nacra 17 title to secure another quota spot for the country in a sport that has netted Australia 13 Olympic gold medals, including two in Tokyo.
"It was like racing in a hairdryer," explained Nicholas of the hot, dry and gusty conditions.
"Today our goal was to assure ourselves the Oceania nation quota, which we were able to do before the final race, as we now can't be beaten by the New Zealanders so long as we complete the medal race tomorrow.
"We still have a medal race tomorrow, where we will be going out there fighting for the gold."
Quota spots in the women's windsurfing, men's kite and men's skiff (49er) will be decided on Friday.
Australia already achieved quota spots in five classes at August's world championships, but sailors are far from assured of a ticket to France next year.
Each will be asked to hit certain benchmarks in meets next year to earn their place, before a panel then makes the final call.
Selectors may decide not to fill every class the country has earned a quota spot in, while the depth in some other classes is sure to create headaches for the committee.
