SAILING - Northland sailors to the fore at worlds

A win in the second race of the Yngling World Championships in Portugal sees Sharon Ferris' Northland crew well placed for success.
The crew of Ferris, Raynor Smeal and Shandy Buckley are under pressure at the world championships as they must get a top-10 finish to remain in contention for a Yachting New Zealand nomination for next year's Beijing Olympics.
Added to a seventh place in the first race of the Yngling regatta, the Northlanders' win in the second race has them in third place overall, setting them up as one of the boats to beat in the 34-strong fleet.
With nine races still to go in the regatta, the title is still anyone's but two British crews - one skipped by Shirley Robertson and the other by Sarah Ayton - seem to be the Kiwis' main rivals early on.
Another Northlander at the combined Olympic class world championships regatta being held in Cascais, Portugal, is Laser sailor Andrew Murdoch.
Like the Yngling crew, he is also currently holding down a top-10 place in the class' world championship series. Murdoch is currently in seventh place after four races but the sailors have yet to make use of their discards in the series, meaning that the Kerikeri sailor could yet move further up the standings.
Murdoch and current world No.2 Tom Slingsby, from Australia, both had poor starts with a 23rd and a 21st respectively in the first race. However the pair have had the best records since then and would be first and second respectively on the leaderboard but for their poor starts.
Slingsby won the second race on Wednesday and the third on Thursday and was runner-up in the fourth race - won by Murdoch, who also picked up a second and a third in the previous races.
German Simon Grotel?schen was leading the standings before racing overnight with Frenchman Thomas Le Breton in second place.
The only cloud on the horizon for Murdoch comes in the form of competition from fellow Kiwi teammate Michael Bullot, who could spoil Murdoch's chance of earning automatic nomination for Beijing, if he finishes in the top-10 in the championships.
Bullot currently sits in 10th place and, if he can finish in the same position or better, then he can challenge Murdoch directly for the single Laser Class Olympic nomination. Murdoch has the current edge over his rival. He is a current a member of the Yachting New Zealand elite Olympic squad but, if Bullot can finish the competition well, he will force Murdoch into further competition for the nomination.