They advanced as top seeds after winning their remaining two gold group matches on what was a frustrating fourth day of light winds across Biscayne Bay.

The British trio overcame the Russian team helmed by Ekaterina Skudina, and United states Anna Tunnicliffe to top their group and will now take on New Zealand's Stephanie Hazard for a place in the final four and a chance of the podium spots.

In spite of their crew change this week, with Mary Rook substituting in for the injured Annie Lush, Macgregor is pleased with how their week is unfolding.

"We've been trying to learn quite quickly with having [Mary] in – getting the boat handling all sorted, getting the communication right between the three of us and it's slowly coming together.

"We've got a few areas we need to improve on.

"Starting, we could be much stronger but other than that we're feeling really confident.

"We're sailing better than anyone else around the course – if I could just get the starts right then we'll be really good."

British crews are the dominant force in the 49er fleet, with John Pink and Rick Peacock extending their lead with 1,2,1 for their efforts.



Dave Evans and Ed Powys are in second, with Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith maintaining the sweep of podium spots for the Brits in the class, with two days of the regatta to run.

The Finn class endured a long day on the water, but managed two races, with Giles Scott still topping the leaderboard with 7,4.

Andrew Mills had the best of the day's results with 4,2 taking him up to fourth overall.

Ben Ainslie (pictured top) was handed a second yellow flag penalty in the opening race of the day, turning an otherwise impressive fourth place into a disqualification for that race, but then hit back with a win in the second race.

British pairs Luke Patience/Stuart Bithell and Nic Asher/Elliot Willis remain in control in the 470 men's event where just one race was held in the dying breeze, and with no racing possible for the 470 women's fleet, Penny Clark and Katrina Hughes remain in overall second.

On the penultimate day of racing for the Paralympic classes there was disappointment in the protest room for the Sonar trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas (pictured above), who lost their series lead after being disqualified for sailing to the wrong mark after a change of course.

They are now third overall, on equal points with second and just one point adrift from the gold medal spot, so will have all to play for.

Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell are currently fourth in the SKUD event, while Britain's 2.4mR sailors Megan Pascoe and Helena Lucas advanced up the leaderboard, with Pascoe now in fourth and Lucas sixth.

The RS:X windsurfers and Laser sailors also saw no racing, while in the Laser Radial event, Alison Young is the top-ranked British boat in seventh.


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