Olympic-bound sailors Jesse and Zander Kirkland remained in medal contention at the 49er World Championships in Croatia yesterday.The local sailors are currently fourth in the 25 boats competing in the Gold fleet final with two races to go before the medal race is held.Only the top ten boats in the Gold fleet qualify for the medal race.Undoubtedly, the siblings, who have far surpassed expectations at the championhips, will enter today’s final day keen to stand on the podium. But they will do so mindful they have very little margin for error having already made their two allocated drops.They discarded the 26-point penalty they received after being disqualified in yesterday’s final race for crossing the start line early under the dreaded black flag rule. It was the second time this week the Kirklands had paid the penalty for going over early.That proved to be the lowpoint of yesterday’s outing off the shores of Sailing Club Uskok which peaked in the day’s opening race with a second bullet (first) of the regatta followed by an equally impressive third place finish in the next race.The Bermudian pair have thrived in the light air conditions in Zadar all week and for the most part yesterday proved to be no exception.“Today was a great day for us despite the black flag in the final race,” skipper Jesse said. “In the first race the breeze was lighter and we headed right off the starting line with a minority of the fleet.“The breeze filled in on our side and we rounded second behind the Kiwis. After holding second through the first downwind we got to a left pressure and passed the Kiwis on the second upwind and held to our first Gold Fleet bullet in the Worlds.“In the second race, after a decent start, we managed to pick a couple shifts in the middle and round the windward in fourth. We had a solid downwind catching up to second though lost a boat on the second upwind and ended up third.“In the final race we got caught in a pack of boats a little too ambitious on the starting line and we all got called over. It was an unfortunate end to an otherwise great day.”The Kirklands are now hoping to end their championship campaign with a bang.“We have two races tomorrow before the medal race,” Jesse said. “Those two races are going to be important as the points are very tight from third through 13. Hopefully we can put together a few good races to propel us in the medal race.”Earlier this week the Kirklands made history by becoming the first Bermudian Skiff sailors to qualify for the Olympics.n Rory Caslin, Mikey Wollmann, Antonio Bailey, Chase Cooper and Makai Joell have earned the right to represent Bermuda at July’s IODA World Championships in Dominican Republic.Caslin clinched the top qualifying spot during the IODA World Championship trials with Wollmann and Bailey rounding out the top three.Cooper and Joell placed fourth and fifth respectively among the overall 27-boat fleet.