Yachting: Team back in familiar spot

Emirates Team New Zealand are in a position they're more accustomed to - top of the leaderboard - after a first and second on day three of the Audi MedCup regatta in Portugal yesterday.

Team New Zealand were at the tail of the fleet after the opening day, when they recorded a sixth and 11th, but have recovered well and will now fancy their chances of defending the title they won last year.

British TeamOrigin, skippered by former Team New Zealand member Ben Ainslie, were second three points adrift.

In ideal conditions off the coast of Cascais - winds ranged from 14-25 knots which made for fast and exciting sailing - everything went right for Dean Barker and his crew.

But the skipper wasn't getting too far ahead of himself, especially as it is a stronger fleet than last year and the regatta is being sailed in tricky conditions off Portugal.

"Over the last couple of days we've certainly eliminated mistakes," he said. "But you could throw a blanket over the fleet at this stage. We feel like we have a small advantage on the boats around us, but not enough to rely on.

"It's a case of starting well, trying to anticipate the first wind-shift, working out where we need to be three-quarters of the way up the first beat, and then try to capitalise on our position against the fleet.

"So it's just small things all the way around the course where you try to do a bit better.

"It would be very easy to have a bad result - you miss one windshift or you get on the wrong side of a couple of boats, and you're back in the fleet, where it's hard to battle your way through to a respectable placing."

They didn't have any of those problems yesterday. They got off to a good start in the day's opening race and only a favourable wind-shift to TeamOrigin pushed them into second. In the second race they led virtually start to finish.

A longer coastal race was due to be raced overnight before two final races on the last day. The MedCup is raced over five regattas in successive months in Europe.