Brits hold Yngling lead but Dutch close the Gap

by ISAF (source: Olympic News Service) on 11 Aug 2008 It was a great day three of racing for the Dutch Yngling, who closed the gap on the British leaders to just three points.

The British World Champion trio of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson finished Monday on top of the Yngling fleet, with Mandy Mulder, Annemieke Bes and Merel Witteneveen (NED) just behind them. Going into their reserve day tomorrow, this pair is beginning to pull out an advantage over the rest of the fleet.

The Brits once again got off to a conservative start in their first race of the day, picking their way through the fleet from tenth at the first mark to finish in third. Their closest rivals in this regatta are proving to be the Dutch trio, who led the first race of the day from start to finish, with the two teams equal poised on equal points when the discard came in after race five.

But Ayton, Webb and Wilson nudged ahead with a second in the final race of the day to pull three points ahead of the Dutch heading in to their lay day on Tuesday.

A smiling Ayton said of the day: 'It was a really tricky day but we started off, four fleet races down, six to go, knowing that we had to put in a solid performance and it definitely was that, so we’re feeling pretty cool now.'

'We are enjoying it,' she continued. 'We’re an awesome team and we get on really well, and when we hit the water we’ve got a job to do and we get on and do that.'

'We’re not thinking about the end result – we’ve just got to take each day as it comes,' Ayton explained, asked whether she’s already thinking her second Olympic gold is in within reach. 'We’ve got four races left in the fleet race, and then the medal race so we’ve got a long way to go. We’re sailing really well, we’re sailing strong as a team and all of us can’t ask for anything more than that.'

Just four points cover the teams occupying third to 11th overall, with the Australian team of Krystal Weir, Karyn Gojnich and Angela Farrell lying in the bronze medal position.

Overall Results - http://www.sailing.org/olympics/resultscentre.php?eventid=16201

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