Yachting: 49erFX crew eye World Cup gold

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech closed the gap on the leaders in the 49erFX class at the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Hyeres, France, overnight (NZT) and are within sight of another World Cup medal.

The pair made a slow start to the competition but lie in second after the fourth day of competition, only one point behind leaders Charlotte Dodson and Mary Rook (GBR) and five ahead of the crew in third. They collected a sixth, ninth and first to be well placed heading into tonight's three races before the top 10 medal races tomorrow night.

Josh Junior is also a genuine medal chance having worked his way up to third in the Finn class.

He was third and sixth in his two races to be five points adrift of Great Britain's Andrew Mills in first, but fellow Kiwi Andrew Murdoch endured a difficult day with a 16th in the first race before he was black-flagged in the second race. He lies in 10th overall.

Sam Meech remains the best placed of the Kiwis in the Laser but he slipped from fourth to sixth after a 14th and 15th. Andy Maloney improved his position to ninth but Thomas Saunders took a slide to 24th.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox, who led the men's 470 early in the regatta, are eighth, as are 49er sailors Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski.

New Zealand's standings after day four of the ISAF Sailing World Cup regatta in Hyeres, France, overnight (NZT):

Finn

3rd Josh Junior (4, 8, 5, 3, 6)

10th Andrew Murdoch (5, 7, 8, 16, BF)

49er

8th Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski - 49er (19, 17, 5, 1, 7, 7, 13)

49erFX

2nd Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech - 49er FX (3, 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 1)

Laser

6th Sam Meech (3, 18, 10, 14, 15)

9th Andy Maloney (13, 12, 19, 15, 10)

24th Thomas Saunders (7, 11, 46, 33, 39)

53rd Andrew McKenzie (48, 52, 50, 55, 33)

89th Michael Cate (47, 35, 35, 23, 8)

110th Jack Collinson (50, 59, 55, 47, 51)

Men's 470

8th Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox (2, 11, 19, 10, 12)

31st Francisco Lardies and Luke Stevenson (18, 32, 30, OCS, 27)

Nacra17

13th Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders (26, 5, 9, 6, 11, 12, 12)

21st Tomer Simhony and Nicole van der Velden (19, 28, 25, 15)