OLYMPICS LONDON 2012: Mixed day for Great Britain's sailors in medal chase

By Oliver Porritt, Sportsbeat, in Weymouth

GREAT Britain's 470 sailors dominated a day of mixed fortunes for the home sailors as the men's and women's pairs both lie in the silver medal position, as does Nick Dempsey in the men's windsurfing.

MIXED BAG: Great Britain's sailing team have experienced mixed fortunes in Weymouth
ahead of Showdown Sunday

The Elliott 6m women's match racing team of Lucy Macgregor, her sister Kate and Annie Lush qualified for the quarter finals despite two losses but hopes of a medal for Bryony Shaw in the women's RS:X look slim while Alison Young in the laser radial cannot finish higher than fourth.
 
Birthday boy Luke Patience was again in sparkling form with partner Stuart Bithell as they followed up four top four finishes with a third and a fourth in the men's 470.
 
Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page from Australia are favourites for gold and they showed their superiority with two race wins.
 
But the British pair are delighted with the way they have performed over the first three days to leave them just four points behind.
 
"The Australians cracked out a couple of race wins," said Patience. "They're racing well.
 
"But me and Stuart are happy today - we've come off with another great solid day and we're just in a great place right now and really happy with where we are at.
 
"If we can carry on doing what we're doing over the next four fleet races then it puts us in a fantastic position and I don't think we could have asked for much more at this stage of the game."
 
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark came off the water with a fourth and a sixth and are just one point behind New Zealand sailors Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie.
 
The pair, who won this year's world championships, are delighted with the way they recovered in race two after a technical fault held them up but they admitted they had not yet settled into the regatta.
 
"We're still well in the mix and that's where we planned to be by the end of day two so it's good," Mills said.
 
"But today the nerves were worse than yesterday for some reason - I don't think the late start is good for us.
 
"We both struggle to eat in the morning and so with a late start you are just sitting around waiting and trying to force some food into ourselves and struggling to so we'd like the 12 o'clock starts back.
 
"But as soon as we start racing we're fine it's just the waiting around we struggle with."
 
Nick Dempsey won a bronze medal in the mistral windsurfing class at the Athens 2004 Games, but could only manage an agonising fourth in the RS:X in Beijing in 2008.
 
This time he is sitting in joint second after a second and a third but leader Dorian van Rijsselberge is streaking away from the field with the lowest overall score of any fleet and Dempsey knows a silver is now his only realistic target.
 
He said: "They were two good results today, but with Dorian so far clear he can race freely as he has such a good score line.
 
"Unfortunately the guys behind me dictate what I do - it's the game we're in and at the moment it's about protecting the silver and chipping away at the German and the Polish guys and it will be the same again tomorrow.
 
"If there's a chance in the medal race to have a little play with Dorian and take him down I'll do my best to do that and then we'll see whether the gold medal is or not.
 
"I'm a little bit deflated by being behind but it is an Olympic Games and it's not easy but it was never going to be easy."

© Sportsbeat 2012