Pavlos Kontides raced into gold-medal contention, raising hopes of securing a first podium finish at a Games by a Cypriot athlete, with Goodison 29 points behind.
Kontides, 22, took a second and fourth in the day's races and holds a one-point lead over Australia's four-time world champion Tom Slingsby after six races.
Kontides shares the same coach and trains with Croatia's Tonci Stipanovic who sits third overall, seven points behind the Cypriot.
"We have trained really hard on the water and in the gym and when you have a good opponent, somebody to compare with and to push you (it's good)," Kontides said.
"We are friends all the time off the water (but) on the water I guess we are competing. This is sport."
“I'm feeling a lot better than I was this time yesterday,” Goodison said. “The physios did an amazing job last night of putting me back together – it was an hour laying on my back, then going to the physio then another hour on my back and so on.
“Hopefully tomorrow on my rest day I can piece myself back together and get closer to 100 percent so in the second half of the regatta we can get fire on all cylinders and see what we can get out of this.
“If we're fighting at the end for a bronze then we'll fight as hard as we can and if we have a chance for a gold then fantastic, but whatever it is I'm going to keep fighting and do the best I can.
“I haven't come close to pulling out but if it was any other regatta I'd be lying on the sofa today watching it on TV.
“You only get one chance for this every four years and if it means I'm in a lot of pain for a couple of months afterwards then so be it – you get one shot and you have to give it your all.
“This is the most pain I've sailed with – any other time you're in this sort of pain you wouldn't put your body through it but this is it.”
Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen widened the gap on New Zealand's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke to 13 points after the day's 49er races.
Outteridge, who capsized on Tuesday within sight of the finishing line, was given a snorkel "by a mate" as he and Jensen went out in winds much lighter than the 15-20 knots forecast in Portland Harbour.
The Aussies finished with a first and second in Wednesday's two races.
"Again we had nice starts in shifty winds. We were in the top five at the first mark each time," Outerridge said.
"We've a long way to go and one bad day can alter the points."
The duo of Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes remain confident in fifth, overall after a much improved day’s racing saw them finish fourth and second.
There are 15 races in the skiffs before the medals race on August 8.
Windsurfing's 'Flying Dutchman' Dorian van Rijsselberge opened up a nine-point lead over Poland's Przemyslaw Miarczynski in the men's RS-X event with three wins and a second already in the first four of the 10-race event.
Breakfasting "on a poached egg and beetroot juice" the tall, confident 2011 world champion finished first and third in the two races on Wednesday.
"It was hard to estimate the wind on the Nothe course because at one point it comes over the wall and you can't see the shifts," the Dutchman said.
Nick Dempsey’s thrilling win and a fifth place has lifted the Great Britain windsurfer up into medal contention in the class as he seeks to add to his Athens bronze at the Olympic sailing regatta.
Behind Greek Byron Kokalanis with just a few metres to go, a surge of speed saw Dempsey take the win on the line - to end in third - in a race that saw favourite van Rijsselberge denied victory for the first time in four races.
Dempsey was glad to be amongst the front runners today and enjoyed the vocal support of the spectators as he competed on the Nothe stadium course.
“The last race was great and it was good fun going neck and neck with Byron,” Dempsey said.
“He was doing a good job of making it very difficult for me to pass but I knew I had a bit of pace on him – I just had to get close.
“I thought I’d lost my last overtaking opportunity on the last downwind and he pretty much got it spot on but it’s the Olympic Games and you can’t give an inch so I went to the head and the crowd definitely spurred me on.”
The spectator friendly Nothe Course lies below the raised old fort of Weymouth and neighbouring Portland. The windsurfers move into the more sheltered Portland Harbour course on Thursday.
After winning the first four women's Laser Radial races Ireland's Annalise Murphy had a less happy day but retained her overall lead.
Belgium's Evi Van Acker, sailing consistently, cut her deficit to two points after a first and a fifth in Wednesday's races.
After four races Spain's windsurfing hope Marina Alabau Neira continued her winning streak with two more firsts to give her an eight-point lead over Israeli world champion Lee-El Korsiz.
A fourth and ninth left Bryony Shaw sixth overall in the women’s RS:X as she seeks to replicate her form from Beijing where she won a bronze medal while the Ewomen’s match racing team lost their two round robin matches against New Zealand and Russia.
Alison Young started the day with a stunning second but got caught up in the fleet in the next race, though she remains in the hunt for a medal as she sits fourth in the laser radials.
Young continues to defy her lack of experience and followed up two seconds yesterday with another solid day’s racing but she is trying to treat the Olympics like any other regatta.
“Second was solid enough,” Young said. “But I thought I was going to win after going round the leeward mark in the lead so I’m quite upset with myself.
“You have to keep looking for the opportunities and when I was in the lead I didn’t get excited – you have to keep cool and keep focussed on the race.”
Despite taking scalps in almost every race so far, Young is staying focused and is confident of a successful finish to the regatta.
“I’m not surprised to be finishing ahead of some of the established names in the fleet,” she added.
“There are five or six of us who consider ourselves medal shots but I feel pretty relaxed and into my racing.”
