Burling and Tuke win gold at Sailing World Cup Hyeres

Sailors Peter Burling (left) and Blair Tuke. Photo / Getty Images

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have once again secured 49er gold before starting the medal race, this time at 2016 Sailing World Cup Hyeres in France.

Donning the yellow leaders' bibs again for today's penultimate day of racing, Burling and Tuke come off the water with an unassailable 48 point leading margin.

The victory extends their winning streak to a stunning 26 consecutive regatta victories in the class.

Today the pair sailed three races, which didn't go all their way.

Burling says, "We were pretty happy with how we started our day, we managed to get ourselves back to a pretty solid one in the first, win the second one and then a couple of swims in the last one (chuckling) and managed to get ourselves black flagged."

They are required to sail tomorrow's medal race, but are assured of the gold medal, continuing their remarkable run.

Tuke said, "We were a bit disappointed we finished how we have but at the same time we sailed really well this week and it's been great fun to have some pretty strong winds."

With the Olympic Games now less than 100 days away from starting the pair see this victory as another stepping stone towards Rio 2016.

"Obviously we are really happy with how we have been going at the moment but still like we have been saying, we have a lot of hard work to do over the next three or four months just to finish it off and finish off the final detailing," says Burling.

"If Rio was tomorrow I don't feel like I think we are ready yet, so we've still got plenty in the tank to go and we are looking forward to the challenge."

In the women's 470 class, Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie have dropped to 6th overall.

The pair had a 17th, and a sixth before being black flagged on their final race of the day, which they had led from start to finish.

That puts them out of medal contention with a day to go.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox take sixth place overall into the men's 470 medal race. Mixed results from today, including a 32nd, a 19th and a ninth sees them slip one place overall in the standings. The pair will be aiming for a good medal race tomorrow which could see them claim a top five finish.

The Finn fleet sailed just one race today and a third place from Josh Junior sees him advance to tomorrow's medal race lying fourth overall and within easy reach of the podium.

Leader Jake Lilley from Australia has a seven point lead, but Junior is just two points back of second place.

With double points up for grabs in the medal race, Junior could make a run at the medals tomorrow.

Elsewhere, both Sam Meech and Andy Maloney had excellent days, and both will sail in the Laser medal race with Meech the best placed to secure a podium finish.

Lying second going into today Meech is now in fourth with just one point separating him from the silver medal position.

The leader, Australia's Tom Burton, is five points clear.

Maloney improved from eighth to sixth with his results today. He has 58 points and a good medal race from him could see him improve further.