British sailors consolidated their positions at the French Olympic Sailing Week on Thursday, after a fourth day of extremely light wind racing.
Skandia Team GBR s 49er crews held on to the same positions at the top of the leaderboard at the close of play on Wednesday after two topsy-turvy races in which teams who fared well in one race found themselves struggling in the other.
John Pink and Simon Wheeler maintain their first place overall, posting a 34th and a first place from their two races to extend their lead over World Champions Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks to one point. Draper and Hiscocks posted a 27th in their opening race of the day, getting tangled up with two other boats at the windward mark and having to take penalty turns, before pulling back in the second race to finish second behind Pink.
European Champions Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes scored 18,4 today to maintain their fifth place, while transitional squad sailors Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign held on to their top ten spot with a consistent 17,14 today.
After a disappointing start to their regatta, Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson have worked their way up one more place in the Yngling results table to fourth overall and just four points away from the podium positions. Silver medallists at the Princess Sofia Trophy at the beginning of the month, they scored 8,5 today, while Victoria Rawlinson, Emma Rawlinson and Sue Monson saw their worst result of the regatta so far with 25, followed by 14, to keep them in eighth place. Shirley Robertson, Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor have continued their climb up the leaderboard, reaching 11th place on equal points with 10th with results of 13,12 today.
Bryony Shaw is in second place in the women s RS:X class after a trying day the Weymouth windsurfer s performance was impeded by a broken baton, seeing her post her worst finish of 25th, while the Chinese leader Jian Yin scored another race win to put her four points ahead of Shaw.
Two race wins for a Greek sailor Emilios Papathanasi and an 11,34 for Finn sailor Ed Wright saw the Brit drop one place to the bronze medal position, while the British sailors in the Paralympic classes are still in the medal hunt. Helena Lucas is in third place overall in the 2.4mR class with a second place from the fleet s sole race today; Megan Pascoe crossed third to extend her lead over the sixth placed Frenchman Damien Seguin.
In the Sonar class, Greek sailors Christoforo, Paterakis and Kostaris notched up two race wins to make it four from the eight races so far to see Skandia Team GBR s John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas slip to second place, but just three points adrift from the top spot.
Charlotte Dobson opened the first day of gold fleet racing with a race win in the first race of the Laser Radial class, but couldn t manage the same in the second race and finished the day in 23rd place. Laura Baldwin is currently the top British sailor in the fleet in 14th, with Andrea Brewster three points behind in 16th.
In the RS:X men s class, Nick Dempsey is in 23rd, while development squad sailors Chris Rashley and Marcus Lynch are still the top British crew in the Tornado class after the fleet s single race today they re in 23rd, while the 470 sailors continue to struggle with Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield posting 25,16 from their two races today.
With stronger breezes expected on the French Riviera tomorrow, the results tables may yet see some shake-ups ahead of the final medal races on Friday.
Racing at the 2007 French Olympic Sailing Week runs through until Friday 27 April.