It was a great day for the RYA Team GBR sailors at the 49er world championship, in particular Alister Richardson and Peter Greenhalgh, who so far have sailed an almost faultless regatta, scoring three first places and two seconds, to equal them on five points with the Italians. Team mates Paul Brotherton and Simon Hiscocks are sailing well together and after five races are in fourth positions in the overall qualifying rankings. Chris Draper and Mark Asquith are also going well in the tricky conditions and are on track to finish inside the top 25 which will qualify them for the Gold fleet.

49er Silver Olympic medallist Ian Barker and crew Harvey Hilary were over the line at the start and were disqualified in their first race in the morning. They did however, then go on to score a sixth and fifth position to put them in 24th position overall and also put them on track for the Gold fleet.

Conditions have been light and very cold. “The wind has been up and down so there has been a lot of sitting around waiting for it to fill in,” commented Stephen Park, the Olympic Development Squad Manager.

Today is the last day of qualifiers and if nine races are sailed in total, another discard will come into play. The aim for Team GBR will be to finish inside the top 25 sailors in order to qualify for the Gold fleet.

Results (after 5 races, 1 discard)

1st SANTIAGO LOPEZ-VAZQUEZ/JAVIER DE LA PLAZA ITA 5 pts 1,4,1,2,1

2nd ALISTER RICHARDSON/ PETER GREENHALGH GBR 5 pts 1,1,1,2,2

3rd PIETRO SIBELLO/GIANFRANCO SIBELLO ITA 6 pts 1,3,1,3,1

Team GBR

5th PAUL BROTHERTON / SIMON HISCOCKS 8 pts 3,2,2,1,4

17th CHRIS DRAPER/ MARK ASQUITH 24 pts 6,7,9,8,3

24th IAN BARKER/ HARVEY HILARY 29 pts 17,1,OCS,6,5