Yachting: Maloney and Meech take the lead

The breeze finally arrived at the 49er world championships in France and it helped New Zealand sailors Alex Maloney and Molly Meech, who jumped up the fleet to lead with two days remaining.

The young combination came into the regatta as the world's No 1 crew in the new Olympic 49erFX class and were seventh at the start of the day but a series of good results _ sixth, second, sixth and first in the 20-boat gold fleet _ saw them take a three-point lead over previous leaders Sarah Steyaert and Jule Boassard of France with Italy's Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich one further back.

The first three days of the competition had been blighted by light winds and postponed races.

"Nice to win the last one,'' Meech said. ``It was a good day out there, and great to stretch the legs at last after three light days. We're expecting more wind tomorrow, too. It was quite tricky, shifty wind and a really nasty chop, so it was nice to finish on a good note.''

Olympic silver medallists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke endured a frustrating day with a seventh, sixth, 16th and 11th in today's quick-fire gold fleet races, but they are still in contention in sixth. Fellow Kiwis Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski, who led after the first day, are 10th.

Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign of Great Britain lead the men's competition on 38 points, 14 ahead of Burling and Tuke but the Kiwis are only four points outside a podium position.

Many in the 49er gold fleet, including the New Zealanders, faced the challenge of consistency as the stronger breeze came with plenty of tricky gusts and shifts.

"Best wind of the regatta so far,'' coach Hamish Willcox said. ``But it was far from straight forward. Seven knots building to 11 but getting more puffy and unstable during the four races. With a few clouds around and the deeper instability of the approaching bad weather we saw puffs [of three knots variance] and shifts up to 20 degrees.''

New Zealand standings at the 49er and 49erFX world championships in Marseille, France, overnight:

Men's 49er (95 boats)

6th _ Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (52 points)

10th _ Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (60)

43rd _ Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock (23rd in silver fleet)

Women's 49erFX (53 boats)

1st _ Alex Maloney and Molly Meech (49 points)

41st _ Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland (21st in silver fleet)