Weather keeps sailors at bay

Iain Percy hoping for success in the men's Finn Class

BBC Sport's sailing commentator Richard Simmonds reports from Sydney after an unscheduled day off for the medal-chasing British competitors.

The wind was simply too unpredictable for sailing on Wednesday, but Great Britain remain tantalisingly close to medals.

Although a light northerly breeze had been blowing, a band of thunderstorms in the Sydney area was expected to produce unstable winds.

So the sailors were given the day off putting some real pressure on the schedule with three days to go.

Looking back to Tuesday, the performance of the day came in the Star keel boat where Ian Walker and Mark Covell delivered two great comebacks.

They scored a second and a third and are now lying fourth overall.

Ben Ainslie: Gold medal position in laser class

"We had blistering downwind speed and it seemed whatever mistakes we made upwind we were able to play catch up pretty effectively," explained the British crew afterwards.

Ben Ainslie has extended his lead in the Lasers to fourteen points with just four races to go.

Ainslie had an 11th on Tuesday but his greatest rival, Atlanta gold medallist Robert Scheidt finished 21st.

Australian Michael Blackburn, who was third before Tuesday's racing was 23rd.

Iain Percy leads the Finn class with five races to go after a fifth and an eighth on Tuesday.

He came ashore pretty despondent about the conditions.

  British medal hopes

Ben Ainslie: Leading Laser class

Ian Percy: Leading in Finn

Shirley Robertson: Second in Europe

Ian Walker and Mark Covell: Fourth in Star

Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield: Fourth in 470

"I went from second to eighth on the final leg, the wind just collapsed there was a huge windshift - I could only watch," he complained.

We can now only look on as Percy heads for a gold that he "would be really disappointed not to secure having lead the Finn class from the start".

An eighth and an eleventh in her last races could have been much worse for Shirley Robertson.

The winds in the harbour were incredibly shifty and one of her closest rivals Kristine Roug, the Atlanta gold medallist from Denmark, was over the line before the start gun and subsequently disqualified from that race.

After leading from day one Robertson has now slipped to second overall behind Serena Amato from Argentina, but there is only one point in it.

Robertson has been on the medal trail for 12 years after finishing ninth in Barcelona and fourth at the Atlanta Games.

Far from being phased about losing her overall lead Robertson was relaxed, upbeat and philosophical.

Walker and Covell have a medal in their sights in the Star

"It was a nightmare out there, lots of wind shifts in that rain - it could have been so much worse," she explained.

The summary for the British Olympic sailors as the final medal ceremonies get ever closer is as follows: Leading two classes, second in one, fourth in two, with one silver already delivered.

Thursday will now decide the medals in the 470 class.

Great Britain's Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield are lying fourth, four points behind the Argentinean team.

They are determined to use what they see as a psychological edge.

"There would be much more pressure if we were lying third and defending bronze," insisted Rogers.

"We are just looking forward to tomorrow."

Their battle starts at 1400 local time on Thursday.