Australian Sailing Team at ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres - Day 4

Mat Belcher & Will Ryan on day four of ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyeres © Francisco Vignale / www.franciscovignale.com

ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères reached a critical stage with a fourth day that saw eight Australian Sailing crews finish in the top ten and leading in both the Men's 470 and Laser fleet.

Over 1,100 sailors are competing at the fifth and final stage of the 2013-2014 ISAF Sailing World Cup series and it was long day out on the water with the Laser fleet coming in last after eight p.m. local time.

Following a delayed start to the day a shifty 10-12 knot westerly breeze tested the sailors' and the race committees. Minus one Nacra 17 race, a full complement of gold fleet races concluded ahead of the penultimate day.

Men's 470

The points are close in the Men's 470 but it's Mat Belcher (QLD) and Will Ryan (QLD) who maintain their lead. The current World Number One and ISAF Sailing World Cup Mallorca bronze medallists took the final bullet of the day whilst ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami gold medallists Sofian Bouvet and Jeremie Mion (FRA) picked up the first. Bouvet and Mion are second overall, two points behind the Australians. Greece's Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis are third, two points off Bouvet and Mion.

Nacra 17

Darren Bundock (NSW) and Nina Curtis (NSW) wore the 'maillot jaune' today, with a narrow lead of one point ahead of the Italians going into Thursday's race.

Athough Bundock and Curtis had dropped back into third at the end of the day, it remains tight with just two points separating the leading trio of Vittorio Bissaro and Silvia Sicouri (ITA), Billy Besson and Marie Riou (FRA) and the Australian duo after todays two Nacra 17 gold fleet races.

By their high standards the leading three had a disappointing opening race with the Italians18th, the French, 21st and a 20th for the Australians.

On the first race Curtis said, "There was very little wind with massive wind holes and big streaky gusts coming through the race course. We rounded the top mark in second last - we got stuck on the upwind. We were in a lot of trouble but we got the hang of the conditions throughout the rest of the race and we avoided those sticky situations.

"We managed to fight our away back so a good recovery, especially by Bundy from picking up on those shifts."

In the second race Bundock and Curtis came through in third with the Italians in fourth.

Australian Sailing Team's Euan McNicol (NSW) and Lucinda Whitty (NSW) are in eighth position and James Waterhouse (NSW) and Lisa Darmanin (NSW) finished the day in 12th.

49er Gold

Olympic gold medallists Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Iain Jensen (NSW) are continuing their chase of the pack and moved up into fifth after a 13th, second and fourth place. With a capsize spoiling their clear lead in the last race they look set for the medal race and have another two days to make up ground.

New Zealanders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have a healthy 22 point lead with two days remaining.

Finn

Australian Sailing Squad's Jake Lilley (QLD) had a solid day today posting an eighth and twelfth in the Finn, which put him into tenth overall and a possible medal race position.

Keeping it real he said after the race: "We had a pretty consistent day and that's hard to do so we're happy with where we came away with today. We've been using Hyères to practice a lot of things and have done a lot of hard work back at home and since Palma where we didn't have such a good regatta. Tomorrow I just want to go out and have another good day and at the end of the day we'll be in the medal race or not, but I obviously hope to be there."

Hear from Jake Lilley about his day four here.

Laser

Australian Laser fleet leader Tom Burton (NSW) and Andy Maloney (NZL) are divided by a single point in the Laser as the 62-boat gold fleet concluded racing at 20:01 local time. With nine races done and dusted in the Laser there's very little to separate top four in the Laser. Burton sits on 31 points, Maloney 32, Olympic champion Robert Scheidt (BRA) on 36 and Rutger van Schaardenburg (NED) on 39 points.

Burton and Maloney have the most impressive score cards with only top eight results. On the day Burton said, "It was a good day for me. I got some consistent results. The first race was a little bit tricky and the second race was even more tricky but it ended up well for me."

"It was getting late and everybody was getting pretty frustrated and pushing the starts pretty hard."

Laser Radial

Australian Sailing Squad's Ashley Stoddart had another solid day with a sixth and 11th finish in Thursday's two races and with this managed to move up the ranks by one spot into overall fifth.

Paralympic Fleet - Sonar

There will be very little room for error on the final day of Sonar racing as four points separate the top four racers. John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas (GBR) keep their overnight lead and still have a slight advantage over Bruno Jourdren, Nicolas Vimont Vicary and Eric Flageul (FRA) and with Australia's Colin Harrison, John Harris and Russell Boaden in fourth.

Racing commences at 11:00 local time on Friday 25 April as the places for the Medal Races are decided.

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Tracking

Live race tracking in 2D and 3D is available during ISAF Sailing World Cup Hyères from Wednesday, 23 April. Click here to access the tracking.