Sailing: Slim chance for the veterans

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Chris Dickson has been denied Olympic gold by an Austrian tyre salesman and his carpenter partner.

But the race is not yet over for the Kiwi sailing enigma and his crewmate, Glen Sowry, who will fight for Tornado bronze on Saturday and Sunday.

With two races left, the Austrians are so far in front they cannot be beaten.

These guys are by no means professionals - Roman Hagara works with wood in Vienna, and Hans Peter Steinacher owns a tyre business in Salzburg.

Dickson and Sowry, the old guys of the fleet in their first Olympic experience, were last night in fifth place and would need a couple of wins to get amongst the medals.

They started yesterday well, with a fifth, but slipped further back down the fleet to a seventh and then a 12th as the winds died.

An upbeat Dickson said on Friday night he knew they did not have a strong chance but they were hanging in there.

While the Kiwis strive for bronze, the Austrians will be lying on the beach. They have decided not to race this weekend, instead celebrating Austria's first-ever Olympic sailing gold.

Another New Zealand medal hope was kept alive by the 470 women's crew, Melissa Henshaw and Jenny Egnot.

Halfway through, they are in third place overall after an average kind of day on the water.

The Kiwis fought their way through the fleet to finish seventh in the first race, but were middle-of-the-pack 10th in the next.

Only six points separate them from the leaders, world champions Ruslana Taran and Olena Pakholchyk, who sail in Auckland every summer.

On Friday night the New Zealanders won in the protest room after a confrontation at a mark round where they were bumped by wooden-spooners Brazil.

The 49er crew of Dan Slater and Nathan Handley had their best day yet, notching up three top-four finishes, but it may have come too late.

They climbed up to eighth overall, but are almost 30 points shy of the leaders, American brothers Jonathan and Charlie McKee, who have signed up to become America's Cup sailors with the Seattle OneWorld syndicate.

"Before today, everything that could go wrong has," said Slater. "It's been disappointing to have spent four years training for lottery racing."

Still, they managed to score a second and third yesterday to lift their spirits with four races to go.

Simon Cooke and Peter Nicholas in the men's 470 are 10th in their fleet of 20.