updated 1:21 a.m. ET Aug. 27, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - As John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree skimmed the waves of the Saronic Gulf on their fast catamaran, all the pressure of trying to win an Olympic medal suddenly disappeared.

After finishing first and second in Thursday’s races in the Tornado class, they know they’ll be standing no lower than the second podium at the medals ceremony.

“Obviously we want a gold,” said Lovell, the skipper. But “now that we’re guaranteed a silver, it’s just a sense of relief. We feel loose and ready to go for the gold.”

Lovell, of New Orleans, and Ogletree, of Houston, are within three points of the defending Olympic champions from Austria. The gold and silver will be decided between those crews in Saturday’s deciding 11th race in the 17-boat fleet.

Lovell and Ogletree, who grew up in the South, seemed uptight earlier this week.

“I’m relieved and excited,” Ogletree said. “We’ve been doing it for so long and we were putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to win a medal. We’ve put a lot of money, time and effort into it over the years.”

America’s Cup star Paul Cayard wasn’t nearly as happy. He and crew Phil Trinter are still in medal contention in the Star class, but they can’t win the gold. That went to Brazil’s Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira, who clinched it with one race left.

Grael, 44, won a record fifth Olympic sailing medal, and his second Star gold. He and Ferreira have won two golds and one bronze together.

“I’m a little disappointed I didn’t sail the regatta of my life,” said Cayard, in his first Olympics at 45. “Yeah, sure, I’d rather have a gold medal. It didn’t happen.”

Cayard, of Kentfield, Calif., and Trinter, of Lorain, Ohio, are in fourth overall with 56 points, nine points shy of the silver. The final race is Saturday.

“I feel I have a medal in me,” Cayard said. “We’ve just got to go have a spectacular race and see where it stacks up.”

Lovell and Ogletree finished seventh in the 2000 Olympics and eighth in 1996.

They’ve been friends since college — Lovell went to College of Charleston and Ogletree to Old Dominion — and hooked up in 1993 after both failed to qualify for the 1992 Olympics in different classes.

“He asked me to come sail with him on a catamaran,” said Ogletree, a sailmaker. “I thought it was just going to be like having a Hobie day, you know, flying a hull and drinking margaritas or something.”

But it turned out they were pretty good together.

They won eight national championships, and this year finished second at the world championships.

“One of our biggest strengths is, wherever we go in the world, or even at home, we’re best friends and we talk on the phone all the time,” Ogletree said. “We’re not a businesslike skipper and crew.”

Lovell, an accountant with his family’s firm, and Ogletree were born about an hour apart on Oct. 11, 1967, Lovell in Baton Rouge, La., and Ogletree in Greenville, N.C. They discovered that fact when a bouncer at a bar checked their IDs not long after they teamed up.

The Tornado is the fastest boat in the Olympics. It got even faster in these games with the addition of a spinnaker for downwind legs.

Grael, 44, has won five medals in six Olympics, dating to his silver in the Soling class in 1984. The only Olympics he didn’t medal in was in 1992.

Grael and Ferreira sailed a consistent regatta against a fleet loaded with some of the world’s best sailors. In 10 races, they were out of the top seven only once, finishing 11th in the first of Thursday’s two races for the 17-boat fleet. In the second race, they finished fourth to win the gold.

Grael was the tactician for Prada Challenge in the 2000 America’s Cup, helping the Italian-based crew eliminate Cayard’s AmericaOne in the challenger finals. Prada was then swept in five races by Team New Zealand.

On the 49er course, Iker Martinez and Xavier Fernandez of Spain lived up to their billing as favorites by winning the gold medal.

Rodion Luka and George Leonchuk of Ukraine took the silver, and Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks got the bronze, the fifth medal for Britain at this regatta.

Americans Tim Wadlow of Boston and Pete Spaulding of Miami, knocked out of medal contention on Tuesday, finished fifth in their first Olympics.

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