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8:39 PM Fri 29 May 2009 GMT
The Australian Sailing Team's 49er crew of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen and 470 pairing of Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page led the way on day three of the Delta Lloyd Regatta, claiming three race victories between them.
Outteridge and Jensen won two of the day's races to climb to third placing overall with fellow 49er crews Darren Bundock and Ben Austin in 17th and Euan McNicol and Sam Newton in 18th.
"It was pretty light out there today and we had a bit of a speed advantage which was good," said Jensen. "I haven't had a look at the forecast for tomorrow so I don't know what the breeze will be like but I think it was light later on this week so we'll keep the same setup and hopefully have good speed again."
In the 470 fleet Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page put a tough two days behind them and claimed a third and a fourth, followed by victory in the day's final race to head into the Gold fleet in 15th place.
"We had a pretty solid day, obviously we didn't start the regatta too well with letters in our score but today we had nice consistent starts and were able to play the game, ending up with a third, fourth and first and it could quite easily have been even a bit better," said Page.
"It goes into Gold and Silver fleet tomorrow and we get to race against all the good guys in one fleet so it'll be good racing again. With three races and then a medal race tomorrow night hopefully we can claw back up into the medal race and keep chipping away," he said.
Australian Sailing Development Squad members Sam Kivell and Will Ryan had another strong day in their 470, qualifying for the Gold fleet in their first European regatta together.
In the 470 women's class Stacey Omay and Chelsea Hall spent a second long day on the water and sit in 13th place, while Australia's Women's Match Racing crew went down fighting in their quarterfinal.
Tom Slingsby continues to lead the Australian Laser contingent, recovering from a tough opening two races to finish the final in fourth and heads into Saturday's races in eighth while Ashley Brunning won the day's opening race and moved up to 26th overall.
Day four of racing sees the majority of classes split into fleets based on current placings with Saturday night featuring medal races for the 470 mens and Laser Radials
by Craig Heydon
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Sailing
