Sailing: False start woes strike again for Kendall

7.30am - By CHRIS BARCLAY

ATHENS - Barbara Kendall's hopes of adding to her multi-coloured Olympic medal collection were seriously tarnished by a false start when the Mistral regatta made a belated start here today.

Kendall, the 1992 Olympic champion in Barcelona, was penalised for encroaching the start line when the fifth race finally got under way at the Agios Kosmas Olympic Sailing Centre.

The Mistral fleet were delayed for about five hours after docile winds prevented the 49er class, which races in the same course area, starting on time this morning.

When racing did finally resume, there was instant misfortune for Kendall who was judged to have started early along with Hong Kong's Lee Lai Shan and Swiss Anja Kaeser.

For Shan, a longtime adversary of Kendall, her slip up was instantly negated because the fleet were able to discard their worst finish after five races.

Unfortunately Kendall does not have that luxury because she also incurred a 27-point penalty for another start line infraction in the third race on Tuesday.

While Shan remained on 17 points in the bronze medal position Kendall dropped two places to 12th and can ill afford to add significantly to her existing 66 points before the 11th and final race on Wednesday.

The three-time Olympic medallist's misfortune typified another dismal day for the New Zealand sailing campaign, which continued to take on water as two faint medal hopes finally sunk without trace in dormant conditions.

America's Cup skipper Dean Barker's slim chances in the Finn were snuffled out after he recorded 19th and 20th placings to leave him 13th in a fleet of 25 with one race remaining.

"Dean had as shocking day today to put it mildly," Cowie said.

"He didn't really fire at all and he had to because the medals are just about over in that class."

Barker, with one race remaining on Saturday, can sit back and watch recent Team New Zealand afterguard addition and regatta leader Briton Ben Ainslie try and add an Olympic gold medal to his three world titles.

The Yngling trio of Sharon Ferris, Joanne White and Kylie Jamieson also needed an impressive double to improve on their sixth position but could not deliver, with a 12th and seventh signalling the end of their podium challenge.

"They had an average day," Cowie said.

"They performed quite well but not quite good enough."

Cowie and the trio craved livelier conditions and questioned why course officials insisted on racing taking part in light airs.

"It's disappointing for us because we prefer a bit of breeze."

The British Yngling sailors had no such complaints with the Shirley Robertson-led trio comprising Sarah Ayton and Sarah Wells claiming the gold medal with a race to spare.

Greek duo Sofia Beratorou and Emilia Tsoulfa raised the roof at the venue when they also cruised to gold with a race up their sleeves in the women's 470 class.

New Zealanders Shelley Hesson and Linda Dickson were among crews left in the winner's wake since the start of the regatta and were positioned 17th in the 20-nation fleet after lowly 14th and 18th finishes.

The men's 470 crew of Andrew Brown and Jamie Hunt can also reflect on a wretched regatta as they continued a string of down fleet finishes to cross 26th and 25th in their two races today to lie 26th out of 27.

Men's Mistral sailor Tom Ashley also faltered with his 18th in a solitary outing today seeing him slip from fifth to 10th overall.

The only bright spots were provided by Sarah Macky in the Europe and Laser representative Hamish Pepper.

Macky closed in one the leaders, improving from 11th to seventh thanks to 6th and fourth placings, leaving her 15 points shy of current third placed Dane Signe Livbjerg with three races to contest.

Pepper improved from 12th to ninth by finishing 15th and third, but will need to place well inside the top 10 five in his remaining three races and hope others falter to figure in the medals.

- NZPA