Sailing: Kendall goes for the full set

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Colour doesn't matter. Barbara Kendall is just bursting out of her salty, bronze skin that she is going to add a third Olympic medal to her collection on Sunday.

She's so excited that she's even thinking of ditching her plans to retire from boardsailing, to have another go in Athens 2004.

No matter what happens in Sunday's final race, the Kiwi legend will win a medal - only it won't be gold.

She is convinced it will be bronze, but that wouldn't be so bad. Then she would have the full set - a bronze to go with her 1992 gold and 1996 silver - becoming only the second New Zealander, alongside horseman Blyth Tait, to collect a medal of every hue.

"I really don't care what colour it is," she said on Friday night. "I'm not disappointed about missing out on the gold - not like I was last time.

"I was so happy after the race today, I crossed the line and yelled out 'Yee-ha'. If I get the full set I'll be stoked."

Kendall's team-mate, Aaron McIntosh, is still in the hunt for a medal. He is sitting in the bronze spot with two races to go this weekend.

While he battles it out on Saturday, Kendall will be at the movies, resting before her big showdown on Sydney Harbour.

For silver, she must win the final race, and her Italian rival, Alessandra Sensini, the defending world champion, will have to finish fourth or worse.

Four years ago, off the shores of Savannah, Kendall pipped Sensini for the silver on the final day.

Once again, the gold is too far from her clutches, even though she won the last race of the day on Friday.

Now, tiny German soldier Amelie Lux will battle Sensini for first prize. If the wind stays light, as it has all week, the featherlight Lux, just 49kg, could end up the surprise golden girl.

The trio were so far ahead of any other sailors yesterday, with two races to go, that they were declared the medallists.

"Never in all my years of racing have I seen anything like this - where three girls just stepped away," Kendall said. "It's been such an unbelievably hard week in the same light winds every day."

"But I was thinking afterwards, 'I'd quite like to do it again' (another Olympics). I mean, it is the ultimate challenge."

McIntosh was furious with himself on Friday - a 12th in the last race of the day making the gold just that little bit more slippery.

He had been second going into the race, behind Argentine Carlos Espinola, but he let Austrian Christoph Sieber overtake him again.

Anyone in the top five has a chance of taking the Olympic champion crown.

"I'm still in there, but I let myself down today going backwards for the first time in this regatta. I was sixth and I slipped back to 12th.

"What was worse was that I thought I was over the startline early so I carried that with me the whole way around. That did some damage."

McIntosh has a day off before