Northland duo sailing for gold

Kerikeri sailor Blair Tuke has become Northland's best chance of a gold medal at this year's Olympic Games.

Tuke and 49er skipper Peter Burling face an important test at the Weymouth Olympic Regatta tonight (NZ time) ahead of their gold medal race on Wednesday evening as they try to close the gap between themselves and the world champion Australian pairing of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen.

The Kiwi pair were in second place overall following racing on Saturday morning but for the first time in the event, they have threatened the lead of the hot favourites for gold.

Tuke and Burling were on the water last night hoping to continue on from their first and second placing on Saturday which before last night's and this morning's scheduled races had put them comfortably into the silver medal position.

They have two more races tonight to try and take a lead into the vital gold medal race, which is worth double points. If the pair can lead going into the top-10 race, they get a tactical advantage, and may only have to beat the Aussies to win gold.

Andrew Murdoch faces his medal race tonight knowing he is still an outside chance of a medal in fifth place.

Murdoch had a day of big gains on Saturday night jumping up the leaderboard in the last two races of the opening series, and qualifying for the final medal race tonight.

"I had a great day today, picked up two third place races; obviously a little bit too little too late, it would have been great to have this day earlier in the regatta" he said after racing.

"Being in fifth place I don't think I have a shot at a medal but will be going out there giving it everything and will be looking to take the race out."

Murdoch is hoping for some deja vu after winning the medal race in Beijing four years ago.

The Olympic challenge of Whangarei's Jenna Hansen and her skipper Stephanie Hazard from Algies Bay has ended however with the match racing team just failing to make the quarter-finals.

The crew of Hazard, Hansen and Susannah Pyatt lost their final round robin match to the Russians and then their overall points tie-break with the Dutch team to become the unlucky team after posting some promising earlier results.

Last night there were medal races for the Men's Star and Finn classes, and continued racing for the Women's 470, Men's 49er, and RS:X.