Holland - Australian crews lead the way in 49er and 470 men's fleets

9:05 PM Sat 30 May 2009 GMT

'Outteridge and Jensen in Holland' Craig Heydon Click Here to view large photo

The Australian Sailing Team's 49er crew of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen and 470 pair of Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page have continued their hot on water form on day four of the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Holland.

Outteridge and Jensen started the day in third position overall and kept an eye on their competition as they brought home a second, third and sixth to jump their French and British opponents into first place with just Sunday's medal race left to run.

'We had a really good day on the water with a moderate wind of about 12 knots for most of the racing,' said Outteridge. 'The goal was to try and get some top 10s and consolidate our position in the top three but with our performance we ended up in first which was a good way to finish the day.'

'Going into tomorrow's medal race we have a bit of a points lead, so the plan is to assess who's just behind us and stay near them, if we're within a few spots we should be able to win without doing anything too risky,' he said.

Meanwhile fellow Australians Darren Bundock and Ben Austin, and Euan McNicol and Sam Newton continue to develop well as teams and sit in 19th and 20th respectively.

In the 470 men's fleet Belcher and Page continued their solid form from day three and knowing they had to race well to climb into the top ten had a seventh, ninth and first placings in the day's three races, leaving them in eighth overall.

In Saturday evening's medal race the Australian crew led from the start, keeping their opponents in check as they brought home their 470 in first position to finish in sixth overall, a great recovery from earlier in the regatta.

'We knew we had to get a good start in the medal race and get the first shift as the points were to difficult to try and control in any way, so we started well and formulated a plan as we went along,' said Page. 'We saw that the French crew of Charbonnier and Meyer were close and we had control of them so we made sure we kept that lead all the way as they were the only team that could pass us overall.'

'We had quite a positive regatta, though we didn't start the best and those jump starts cost us heavily in the scores but the last two days went really well and we're starting to gel as a team,' he said. 'We have to pace ourselves as we have a long way to go to the Games but it all feels good and things can only get better.'

Jessica Crisp continued her strong run in the RS:X class coming home with a third and fourth placing in the day's two races to see her head into the medal race in sixth place.

Tom Slingsby had a tough day in the Laser with a second placing being undone by an OCS and black flag, seeing him miss out on the medal race after finishing 15th.

Australian's match racing crew of Lucinda Whitty, Amanda Scrivenor and Nina Curtis finished the regatta in sixth place in the 14 boat fleet, gaining invaluable experience from their first ISAF World Cup regatta.

Sunday sees Jessica Crisp contest the RS:X medal race while Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen head into their first medal race together in first place.

by Craig Heydon

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Holland - Australian crews lead the way in 49er and 470 men's fleets

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