It was a great day for all four of the RYA Team GBR sailors at the 49er world championship who sailed well to finish inside the top 25 out of 156 competitors to qualify for the Gold fleet.

Alister Richardson and Peter Greenhalgh have sailed a fantastic event so far, making very few mistakes and after discarding their worse two results (a fifth and a third) they finished second overall in the qualifying rounds, counting nothing outside a top three finish.

Team mates Paul Brotherton and Olympic Silver medallist Simon Hiscocks finished sixth overall in the qualifying rounds, an incident on the start of the final race however, saw them called over the line, but this result was discarded, along with their second worse result a fourth place. Counting nothing worse than a third place finish, this relatively new pairing are sailing really well together. Ian Barker and Harvey Hilary sailed consistently after a shaky start, to score a first, fifth and three sixth places to finish 14th overall in the qualifying rounds.

A good performance from newcomers Chris Draper and Mark Asquith who discarded a ninth and an eighth position to qualify in 20th position and make the Gold fleet.

Racing will begin at mid-day today. Sailors will carry over their qualifying positions and then the race committee hope to complete ten races before Saturday.

Results (after 9 races, 2 discards)

1st SANTIAGO LOPEZ-VAZQUEZ/JAVIER DE LA PLAZA ITA 8 pts 1,4,1,2,1,2,1,1,1

2nd ALISTER RICHARDSON/ PETER GREENHALGH GBR 10 pts 1,1,1,2,2,3,5,2,1

3rd PIETRO SIBELLO/GIANFRANCO SIBELLO ITA 11 pts 1,3,1,3,1,1,4,2,2

Team GBR

6th PAUL BROTHERTON / SIMON HISCOCKS 13 pts 3,2,2,1,4, 2,1,2,OCS

14th IAN BARKER/ HARVEY HILARY 31 pts 17,1,OCS,6,5,1,6,6,6,

20th CHRIS DRAPER/ MARK ASQUITH 37 pts 6,7,9,8,3,6,2,8,5