For the 116 competitors watching the dark storm clouds pass over the Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club, the skies were ominous for the day ahead, as was the rain, but it ended with racing under glorious sunshine.

Badloe, the defending champion, is in a very strong position at the halfway stage of the event and carries a second place as his discard.

He now sits on a net score of seven points, with nearest challenger Paweł Tarnowski of Poland second on 11.

Tarnowski also put in a strong shift on the water to finish with scores of three, one and one.

Just a point behind him is The Netherlands' double Olympic champion Dorian van Rijsselberghe, who scored a consistent two, two and three today. 

Van Rijsselberghe is carrying an 18th place as his discard and cannot afford to have any more mishaps if he wants to challenge for his third world title.

He is locked in an intriguing battle with Badloe for the Dutch spot at this year's Olympic Games in Tokyo.

With each country only allowed one windsurfer in Tokyo 2020's RS:X competitions, many nations are using the event in Australia to decide who gets their spot.

Overnight leader Pierre le Coq of France, meanwhile, has dropped down the scoreboard to eighth place having scored 10, 10 and 11.

Replicating Badloe’s scoreline in the women's event was Israel’s Noy Drihan, who also scored a near perfect two, one and one to outclass all of her rivals today. 

Drihan has catapulted up the leaderboard to sit at the top on 12 points, just one ahead of yesterday's leader Maja Dziarnowska of Poland.

The Israeli has a significantly worse discard though, 21st place to Dziarnowska's fifth, and will need to maintain her consistency if she wants to challenge for the podium.

The Netherlands' Lilian de Geus is in third place overall, five points behind Dziarnowska.

Action is due to continue tomorrow.

For those sailors wanting to triumph, they have two more days to stake their claim and go into the medal race on Saturday (February 29) in a strong position.