Yachting: Aleh and Powrie lead women's 470

New Zealand sailors Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie lead the 470 class at the Sail for Gold world cup regatta after another two wins on day four in England overnight. Photo / Onedition.

New Zealand sailors Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie lead the 470 class at the Sail for Gold world cup regatta after another two wins on day four in England overnight (NZT).

Despite the stormy weather at Weymouth, the fleet managed two races and New Zealand's Olympic-bound women's 470 sailors won both races, to make it three wins in a row and earn a nine-point advantage over the second-placed French team.

The horrendous conditions forecast prompted race officials to begin the day one hour early with hopes of getting races in for every fleet, but the move was in vain with high winds cancelling racing for the star and laser radial silver fleet.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders also had two races in the men's 470 but could not maintain the form which has seen them win four races in the regatta. The pair could manage only a third and a tenth place to leave them in third overall, with one more day of final series racing before the double point medal race for the top ten on Saturday.

The men's laser and RS:X fleets also got two full races in, while the RS:X women, 49er and finn had only one.

JP Tobin in the men's RS:X fleet saw wind speeds of up to 35 knots in the afternoon before all other racing was called off. Tobin thrived in the big breeze, finishing both races in fourth place to improve his overall ranking to seventh.

In the laser, Andy Maloney enjoyed a fantastic start to the day by winning the first race, but as the breeze built up in the second race he finished 11th to place him seventh overall. Andrew Murdoch placed eighth and fifth in the two gold fleet races to sit eighth overall, while Sam Meech dropped back one place to 20th.

The women's match racing crew completed the repechage round where Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt won five of their six races to progress through to the quarter-finals tomorrow.

Racing will start one hour later tomorrow, with hopes some of the weather system will pass through to allow the last series races before the medal round. One more good race for some New Zealand crew could see them through to the top ten medal race.

Standings from day four of the Sail for Gold world cup regatta in Weymouth, England overnight (NZT):

470 (men's)

3rd Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders (9, 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 10)

470 (women's)

1st Jo Aleh and Olivia (Polly) Powrie (5,15, 3, 8,8,1, 1, 1)

49er

11th Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (3, 10, 14, 10, 7, 8, 2, 7, 4, 9)

13th Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski (7, 6, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 10, 6, 13)

Finn

19th Josh Junior (10,19, 11, 23, 23, 16, 29)

29th Matt Coutts (11,34, 32, 31, 18, 34, 28)

38th Rob Coutts (19, 40, 39, 38, 39, 40, 35)

Laser

7th Andy Maloney (15, 8, 17, 4, 4, 4, 1, 11)

8th Andrew Murdoch (15, 2, 10, 5, 20, 8, 8, 5)

20th Sam Meech (11, 17, 20, 8, 7,12, 17, 30)

Laser radial

41st Sara Winther (19, 26, BFD, 19, 10, 12)

RS:X (men's)

7th JP Tobin (19, 6,14, 9, 9, 3, 4, 4)

RS:X (women's)

17th Natalia Kosinska (9, 10, 14, 17, 25, 44, 23)

23rd Steffanie Williams (25, 31, 21, 16, 15, 25, 20)

Star

11th Hamish Pepper and Jim Turner (8, 7,12, 11, 11, 8)

Women's match racing

5 wins 1 loss in repechage round - Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen, Susannah Pyatt