Great Britain are well placed to deliver medals with three sailors heading their fleets coming into the final day of the Princess Sofia Trophy in Majorca.
Bryony Shaw, Alison Young and Giles Scott maintained their advantage in the women’s RS:X, Laser Radial and Finn classes at the regatta, part of the ISAF World Cup series.
But the experimental scoring format being trialled at this event will see two double-points scoring medal races, instead of the usual one race, for the majority of the Olympic classes, meaning the medals are still very much up for grabs.
“Everyone’s got their opinions on the format. I think throwing everything at the last day is a bit much," said windsurfer Shaw, a bronze medallist at the 2008 Olympics.
“People want to build up their points and have that respect for the result at the end of the day, and having such a weighting on the final day is just a bit a lottery when I don’t think the athletes really want that.”
Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre go into the concluding races of women's 470 effectively on level-pegging with the Brazilians Fernanda Oliveira and Ana Barbachan, while Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield will aim to hold on to their top three spot in the men's 470.
In the 49er and 49erFX events, the double-points scoring medal races are replaced by four single point stadium races, each with eight boats and lasting just ten minutes apiece. In the men’s 49er, Dave Evans and Ed Powys are second overall, while Olympians Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes made the cut in seventh.
Lucy Macgregor and Tom Phipps and Pippa Wilson and John Gimson made medal race day at their first attempt in the new Nacra 17 multihull event, with Macgregor in seventh overall, and Beijing gold medallist Wilson ninth.
© Sportsbeat 2013