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New Zealand's Blair Tuke on the 49er class boat - Source: Photosport -
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Six of the New Zealand Olympic sailing contenders are ranked inside the top ten after a fine day on the water in Weymouth, and two teams are yet to begin.
The young 49er pairing of 21 year old Peter Burling and 23 year old Blair Tuke continued their low points score card, today picking up a third and a fifth in their two races.
"We're really happy with the boat and are sailing quite well at the moment" Tuke said.
Burling and Tuke are currently second overall, but have ten races left in this regatta before the champions are decided.
"We've sailed well these first couple days but there's still plenty more work to do." Blair continued. "It's a really long regatta."
Other highlights from this fifth day of Olympic sailing for the Kiwi team include an impressive race win for Andrew Murdoch in the Men's one person Laser fleet, and a win for the Womens Match Racing crew vs team GBR in front of the home crowd of spectators on the Nothe hill above.
"I had a really good start and managed to just inch my way into the lead at the top mark and then extended at the first run" Murdoch said after returning to shore.
He followed this up with a solid seventh in the next race, and combined with the ability to now discard his worst race score, Murdoch's overall position has moved up to 8th.
The overall points in this fleet are tight; only ten points separate this second time Olympian from fourth and four races remain before the double point medal race for the top ten.
Murdoch seemed relieved to have this result on his record: "It was good to have a race win that's for sure."
Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt's match race win was hard fought for and well deserved in this new Olympic discipline. They incurred a penalty in the pre start and although they led from the first cross upwind, they had to find just the right way and time to clear their penalty, and they succeeded.
They lost their first race to team USA earlier in the day so now this crew are placed fifth equal overall in the round robin, and just three races remain to determine which eight teams will progress to the quarter finals.
Board sailor JP Tobin also had a great day, improving his overall standing to sixth with a third and seventh place finish.
Tomorrow, August 2nd, will be a rest day for the Laser and Laser Radial, while the Finn and Star join the action again for races 7 and 8. Also tomorrow, the Men's 470 team of Paul Snow Hansen and Jason Saunders make their Olympic debut.
Standings- Day 4 - August 1st 2012
2nd - Peter Burling/Blair Tuke (49er) - 9, 7, 1, 7, 3, 5
5th = Women's Match Racing- Round Robin: Four win, Four loss
6th - JP Tobin (RS:X)- 15, 4, 3, 7
7th - Dan Slater (Finn) - 7, 12, 1, 6, 17, 11
8th - Hamish Pepper & Jim Turner (Star) - 15, 7, 1, 13, 6,
5
8th - Andrew Murdoch (Laser) - 12, 8, 17, 18, 1, 7
27th - Sara Winther (Laser Radial)- 31, 23, 21, 15, 35, 31