Rio Olympics 2016: Medals still to come for New Zealand

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are favourites to land New Zealand another gold medal. Photo / AP

It has been a while since New Zealand last claimed a medal at the Rio Olympics but, don't despair, that should change overnight.

Mahe Drysdale's dramatic gold in the single sculls was the last pocketed by New Zealand in the early hours of Sunday morning, taking the tally to two golds and six silvers.

High Performance Sport New Zealand targeted 14 medals in Rio - most thought this was a conservative target - and there are still a number of medals on offer.

Lisa Carrington is favourite to claim gold in the women's K1 200m canoe sprint in tonight's final (12.40am) after going fastest in the semifinals, and sailor Sam Meech is in bronze medal position in the Laser class ahead of tomorrow morning's double points medal race. Meech needs to finish among the top five of the 10 sailors to finish third.

Another gold is on the cards from Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in the 49er class. The pair hold an 18-point lead over their nearest rivals from Germany after recording three top-three finishes with three more races scheduled tomorrow morning (NZT) ahead of the medal race on Friday.

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech are second in the 49erFX with four races remaining. Their medal race will also be on Friday morning.

Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie's chances of defending their Olympic women's 470 title look shot after their protest at their disqualification in yesterday's race 6 was ruled invalid because it was too late. If they had been successful, they would be joint leaders.

The women's hockey side play Great Britain in their semifinal on Thursday morning, world No 1 Lydia Ko begins her quest for a golfing medal on Wednesday night, Carrington lines up in the K1 500m (she's world champion in the event), Tom Walsh competes in the men's shot put on Friday, Nick Willis is a medal chance in the men's 1500, with the final on Sunday.

If things go well for New Zealand - and they haven't really gone to plan so far in Rio - this country could finish with about 16 medals, which would still be a record haul. The best return was the 13 collected in both Seoul (1988) and London (2012) but it's well short of the 24 one projection suggested.

If it makes you feel any better, the Aussies have been below par at these Games, too, with 22 medals (six golds) in total to sit five places ahead of New Zealand in ninth. Australian Olympic boss Kitty Chiller said they needed to snare "15 or 16" golds to achieve their aim of a top-five finish on the overall table.