Developing 49erFX crew Natasha Bryant and Annie Wilmot flew the flag high for Australia at the one week mark of the World Championships, getting ahead of most of gold fleet as well as a brewing storm around Aarhus in Denmark.

The teenage pair moved from 7th to 2nd with scores of 2, 13 and 5 in the three contested finals races and now sit just 5 points behind leaders Tanja Frank and Lorena Abicht of Austria, with a relatively low discard score up their sleeves. Three 49erFX races are scheduled for Day 8 before the medal race on Saturday.

Bryant and Wilmot have chipped away. PHOTO Beau Outteridge

“We’re really happy with our day,” Bryant said. “It was really tricky conditions so we just tried to keep consistent and just chip away at as many boats as we could. We didn’t have the greatest of starts, but we managed to work our way through the fleet and we’re really pleased with how we went.”

Wilmot said: “Technically, we still haven’t sailed our drop yet, so I think there’s not a whole lot of pressure going into tomorrow and we’ll just try our best and sail as hard as we can.”

The pair, who have been working this year with Australian Sailing’s 49erFX coach Javier Torres – who coached the Brazilian FX crew to a gold medal at the Rio Olympics - had their first taste of a medal race at the World Cup Series event at Hyeres earlier this year and are keen to improve on that experience.

The Lasers also beat the afternoon storm, but overnight leader Matt Wearn could only manage 14, which he can drop, compared to Pavlos Kontides’ 2, which saw the Cypriot World Champion leapfrog the Australian into 1st place.

A DSQ for Tom Burton for an infringement rounding a mark meant the Olympic champion had to count an earlier 27, putting him from 4th back to 5th.

Belcher and Ryan will draw on their experience in the medal race. PHOTO: World Sailing

Mat Belcher and Will Ryan dropped back a place to 4th in the 470. But, with only the medal race to come and 13 points separating the World Champions from the lead, anything is possible in the last showdown.

“Unfortunately for us it was another pretty tough day,” Ryan said. “We’re doing a lot of things right, getting good starts, getting to the first shift, but we’re kind of finding ourselves this week a little bit out of sorts with the pressure.

“It’s been a pretty tough venue this week and they’re working us hard. But we’re still in the game and I think we’ve learnt quite a lot. We’re competitive people, so it’s tough. But overall it’s a positive thing for the Olympic pathway.”

The 49ers were sent back to shore when the storm arrived, preventing them from racing.

“We started a race in 6 to 8 knots and then the wind got pushed away, it was a pretty crazy race, with wind coming from both sides of the course, probably 90 degree shifts,” 49er helm David Gilmour said.

“We sat around for 20 minutes and then this storm came through with 25 knots and we got sent in.”

Four races are now scheduled for Day 8 in the 49er. The Laser Radial competition was cut short. In the Finns, Jake Lilley scored 2 and 28 and is 16th overall, with the last race finishing in lashing rain as the storm front swept through.

FAST FACTS

This is the fifth edition of the Sailing World Championships. The event is held every four years.

The previous World Championships were held at Cadiz, Spain (2003), Cascais, Portugal (2007), Perth, Australia (2011) and Santander, Spain (2014).

Australia won four medals at Santander: Mat Belcher and Will Ryan (gold 470M), Tom Burton (silver, Laser), Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (bronze, 49er) and Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin (bronze, Nacra 17).

At the past three Olympic Games Australian sailors won five gold medals and four silver medals.

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RESULTS

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AUSTRALIAN TEAM AND SQUAD RESULTS

Laser

Matt Wearn – 7, 4, 1, 4, 3, 1 Gold Fleet 3, 9, (14) – 2nd

Tom Burton – 1, 5, 6, 1, 2, 27 Gold Fleet 11, 5, (DSQ) – 5th

Luke Elliott – (13), 1, 2, 6, 3, 1 Gold Fleet (48), 21, 29 – 11th

Mitch Kennedy – 8, 10, 22, 3, 4, 5 Gold Fleet (42), 25, 27 – 22nd

Finn Alexander – 6, 7, 5, 40, 16, 14 Gold Fleet 10, (BFD), 18 – 23rd

Laser Radial

Zoe Thomson – 28, 15, 4, 24, 5, 30 Gold Fleet 35, (59) – 36th

Elyse Ainsworth – 21, 27, 28, 23, 22, (38) Gold Fleet 34, 20 – 50th

Mara Stransky – 27, 34, (43), 41, 41, 12 Silver Fleet 11, 5, 12 – 63rd

49er

Will Phillips/Iain Jensen – 3, (19), 6, 1, 6, 12 – 7th

David Gilmour/Joel Turner – 5, 1, 15, 14, 2, (23) – 15th

Lachy Gilmour/Ryan Donaldson – 20, 13, 7, (26), 14, 7 Silver Fleet 2, 2 – 30th

Kurt Hansen/Harry Morton – 15, (27), 18, 18, 17, 18 Silver Fleet 6, 25 – 70th

49erFX

Natasha Bryant/Annie Wilmot - 7, 13, (14), 1, 9, 2 Gold Fleet 2, 13, 5 – 2nd

Amelia Stabback/Ella Clark - 5, 5, 13, 12, 17, 9 Gold Fleet 19, (28), 21 – 23rd

Tess Lloyd/Jaime Ryan – (21), 20, 18, 17, 8, 15 Silver Fleet 13, 5 – 36th

Nacra 17

Jason Waterhouse/Lisa Darmanin – 5, 4, 3, (BFD), 4, 5, 5 – 3rd

Nathan Outteridge/Haylee Outteridge – 5, 5, (13), 5, 8, 3, 7 – 6th

Paul Darmanin/Lucy Copeland – (20), 14, 5, 20, 5, 17, 20 – 29th

Conor Nicholas/Hayley Clark – 11, 31, 21, 27, (DNF), 7, 5 – 37th

Finn

Jake Lilley – 20, 23, 6, 2, 15, 9 Gold Fleet (28), 3, 2, 28 – 16th

Oliver Tweddell – 11, 17, (24), 21, 24, 15 Gold Fleet (45), 21, 3, 14 – 28th

(Tom Slingsby) – 11, 18, 16, 17, 18, 21 Gold Fleet 13, 27, 26, (40) – 34th

Jock Calvert – (44), 24, 17, 26, 30, 25 Silver Fleet 1, 2, 2 – 48th

Lewis Brake – (34), 14, 23, 17, 30, 30 Silver Fleet 32, 6, 7 – 52nd

470M

Mat Belcher/Will Ryan – 3, 13, 8, 4, 2, 4 Gold Fleet 1, 12, (14), 10 – 4th

Chris Charlwood/Josh Dawson – 19, 12, 10, 20, 9, 16 Gold Fleet 12, 5, (26), 6 – 15th

470W

Nia Jerwood/Monique de Vries – (35), 16, 14, 22, 29, 24, 14 – 25th

Dana Tavener/Katherine Shannon – 27, 41, 26, 40, 41, (46), 38 – 43rd

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