Burling and Tuke rise to the top at the 49er and FX Europeans

New Zealand's Olympic silver medallists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have taken the overall lead at the end of day four at the 2013 SAP 49er European Championships on in Arhus, Denmark. Alex Maloney and Molly Meech retain 3rd in the Women's 49erFX fleet racing at the same venue.

Lying 9th going into day four Burling and Tuke appear to have found their groove today with four consistent single digit races including a race win while many of their rivals in the Olympic skiff class struggled for consistency posting mixed results from today.

The NZL Sailing Team pair was 2nd, 3rd 1st and 7th on the water today which earns them the dramatic elevation in the ranks to top the leader-board with two days of racing yet to come. However previous leaders Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign from Great Britain are just one point back in 2nd place.

"We had a really good day, super shifty conditions so to get four small numbers on the scorecard was pretty satisfying," says Blair Tuke after racing.

Burling continues; "We sailed pretty well in our first three races getting top three in all of those and then the last one we had a pretty bad first beat and the shifts didn't really go our way and we managed to come back through and finish inside the top ten so we were really happy with the comeback in the last one. We needed this day to get back up the standings a bit. It's a different day tomorrow there's a lot of points on the last days and this just puts us back in the mix."

The other kiwi 49er crew of Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski have slipped to 7th overall after a 19, 2, 17, 19 scorecard from today where the NZL Sailing Team crews are racing in the gold fleet featuring the top 32 boats.

For the Women's 49erFX fleet today marked the transition from qualifying to finals racing and the kiwi pair of Alex Maloney and Molly Meech are now racing with the top 16 placed crews, sailing four races today.

Maloney and Meech retain 3rd overall with a solid performance including a 7th, a 4th and two 10ths in today's races. Now on 78 points they have two local Danish crews in their sights above them on the leader-board with Jena Hansen and Katja Salskov-Iversen just two points away on 76.

Ida Nielsen and Marie Olsen continue to lead the regatta on 62 points after another good day.

SAP 49erFX European Championships - New Zealand's standings after day four

3rd - Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech
Women's fleet full results

SAP 49er European Championships - New Zealand's standings after day four

1st - Peter Burling and Blair Tuke
7th - Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski
19th in Silver Fleet - Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock
Men's fleet full results

Konsinska takes the lead at the RS:X Women's European Champs

New Zealand board sailor Natalia Kosinska has taken the lead at the RS:X Women's Open European Championships being raced at Brest, France.

It was a long day for all with the gold fleets not hitting the water until 7pm when the offshore breeze finally built enough for racing. "I had a good day, it was a long day, and we waited from 11 o'clock in the morning until 7pm."

"In the end we had 9-11 knots which is quite nice conditions, I liked it, and a little bit less for the second race. In the first race I finished 5th and the second race I won, so I'm really, really happy with that," says Konsinska after racing.

Kosinska showed great speed in the light conditions showing tactical strength to be the most consistent of the top three placed women for today and she is rewarded with an eight point overall lead. Maya Dziarnowska of Poland is her closest rival in 2nd with Maayan Davidovich of Israel in 3rd place.

At this key regatta Kosinska is working with her international training partners and is being supported by the group's French coach.

Just one race was possible in the youth divisions the girl's sailing one race including kiwi Xanthe Bowater who recorded her best result yet with a 10th.

Racing resumes tomorrow for what will be the penultimate day with a more promising weather forecast.

Both regattas run over six days with final results set to be decided on Sunday 7th July.

2013 RS:X European Championships - New Zealand's standings after day four

1st - Natalia Kosinska (Women)
27th - Xanthe Bowater (Women Youth)
42nd - Alexander Hart (Men Youth)
Full RS:X results from France