KEY POINTS:
Aaron McIntosh and Mark Kennedy have forced the Olympic selectors to sit up and take notice after maintaining their place inside the top 10 at the Tornado World Championships off Takapuna.
The Kiwi pair remained in seventh place after the third day of racing as they continue to prove they are capable of duking it out with the front of the fleet.
McIntosh admitted having only sailed with Kennedy for three months prior to the event, he never envisaged they would be sitting in such a strong position at this stage of the regatta.
"We're a little surprised, but we've always known we've got it in us and we continue to string it together," he said. "We thought between 10 and 15 would be some good numbers to play with and we're doing a little better than that."
With a steady onshore sea breeze of around eight to 10 knots, the conditions yesterday were the lightest of the regatta so far and called for "brain sailing" rather than "brawn sailing".
McIntosh admitted they weren't entirely comfortable in the conditions so he was thrilled to maintain their foothold inside the top 10 with some "super consistent" sailing.
With sailors able to drop their worst performance after the sixth race, the standings altered markedly on the third day.
McIntosh and Kennedy found themselves in fourth place overall after the fifth race, but with a couple of crews close to them in the rankings discarding some big scores, the Kiwi pair were bumped back down to seventh by the end of the day.
Yann Guichard and Alexandre Guyader of France lead the regatta heading into the final two days, but they are coming under increasing pressure from the Australian crew of Darren Bundock and Glen Ashby who are on the rampage after a horror start to the regatta. In 19th place after day one, the favourites for the world title in Takapuna rocketed into second place with another impressive day's sailing.
Canadians Oskar Johansson and Kevin Stittle lie in third and are the first of the nations yet to qualify for the Olympics.
New Zealand are also well on track to snare a berth at the Beijing Games thanks to McIntosh and Kennedy.
A further two races are scheduled for today with a stronger breeze forecast.
