A number of Australian Sailing Team athletes have risen to be in medal contention after day four of racing at the Hempel World Cup Series in Miami, Florida.

Both Aussie Nacra 17 teams find themselves in the top four heading in to the all-important medal race tomorrow. Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin have moved up to first and are four points ahead of the previous leaders from Brazil, with Paul Darmanin and Lucy Copeland in fourth and ready to battle for a podium finish tomorrow. The team of Waterhouse and Darmanin will have their hands full tomorrow, with the Brazilians finding some speed towards the end of the day and taking out the last two races.

“There were some pretty light and shifty conditions again today, which has been the theme of the week.” Lisa said. “We had a pretty consistent day, but the Brazilians showed their strength in the trapezing conditions. We are really looking forward to a tight fought battle with them tomorrow.”

“Feels great to be up the pointy end of the fleet amongst the Olympic medalists” her brother Paul said after a strong day on the water. “There has been some really close racing here in Miami and plenty to play for tomorrow.”

Rio Olympic gold medalist Tom Burton leapfrogged 9 positions in the Laser class to find himself in third position after having played the unpredictable conditions well.

“It was very hard to tell what was going to happen with a different breeze on each course, and trying to look too far away for wind often got you in trouble” Burton commented after another long day on the water. “I had another up and down day but for the most part it has been a high scoring event so I have been just trying to chip away and stay near the front.”

The 49er FX team of Natasha Bryant and Annie Wilmot continued their push up the leaderboard to find themselves in sixth place before their medal race tomorrow. They produced a discarded 22^nd before rounding out the day with solid 10^th and 3^rd place finishes.

Tomorrow’s racing will see the medals decided for 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17, with racing set to be streamed live on World Sailing TV.

The Laser, Laser Radial and Finn classes will continue battling it out tomorrow, with Medal races scheduled for Sunday (Miami local time).

NACRA 17

Jason Waterhouse/ Lisa Darmanin – (14), 1, 4, 8, 2, 4, 1, 4, 7, 4, 5, 8– 1^st

Paul Darmanin / Lucy Copeland – (16), 5, 11, 10, 3, 2, 8, 5, 2, 5, 2, 15– 4^th

49er

David Gilmour/ Lachy Gilmour – 13, (43) BFD, 13, 4, 8, 15, 18, 25, 22, 18 – 13^th

Joel Turner/Tom Needham – 9, 9, 30, (40), 33, 4, 33, 14, 21, 26 – 24^th

49erFX

Natasha Bryant/ Annie Wilmot – 11, 5, 17, 11, 17, 3, (22), 10, 3 – 6^th

Amelia Stabback/ Caitlin Elks – 13, 2, 23, (25), 8, 12, (26), 11, 19 – 13^th

Tess Lloyd/Jaime Ryan – 22, (26), 10, 19, 11, 15, 10, 13, 18 – 16^th

LASER

Matt Wearn – 5, 4, 15, 17, 9, (26), 27, (29), 16– 14^th

Tom Burton – 2, 12, 4, 15, (43), 23, 3, 17, 7 – 3^rd

Finn Alexander –19, (52) BFD, 5, 11, 20, 33, 23, 43, 25 – 35^th

LASER RADIAL

Zoe Thomson – 2, 6, 29, (42), 18, 17, 37, 40 – 20^th

FINN

Jake Lilley – 10, 4, (16), 3, 15, 16, (23) – 12^th