Australians hold lead going into 49er Worlds final day

2:29 AM Sun 19 Jul 2009 GMT

'Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen at the 49er World Championships' Richard Langdon &copy Click Here to view large photo

The Australian Sailing Team's reigning 49er World Champion Nathan Outteridge and crew Iain Jensen have held on to their lead on the second last day of racing at the 2009 49er World Championships in Riva del Garda, Italy.

Outteridge and Jensen maintained their lead in the Gold fleet in just their second international regatta together throughout the day's three races in windy conditions which included gusts of up to 26 knots.

Australian 49er coach Emmett Lazich said the AST crew sailed well in the tricky conditions to keep their competition in check.

Outteridge and Jensen after their win at Delta Lloyd Regatta in Holland 2009 - Craig Heydon Click Here to view large photo

'Nathan and Iain sailed very well and slightly conservatively in those fresh heats and still hold the overall lead,' he said. 'The Austrian and Great British teams sailed very aggressively to attempt to bridge a points gap leading into today and it will be interesting to see how they perform tomorrow now that they have more to lose.'

'In the last race today Nathan and Iain competed with a reasonable sized hole in their mainsail after a rule incident at the top mark first time around,' said Lazich. 'Despite not feeling in the wrong, Nathan and Iain did a 360 degree turn to eliminate any remote chance of a DSQ and fought back to finish sixth.'

The Australian Sailing Development Squad crew of Euan McNicol and Sam Newton finished the day in 18th after some mixed results which included an OCS in race one and then a fifth in the day's final race.

Brothers Will and Sam Phillips hold down 20th in the Gold fleet while in the Silver fleet Chris Nicholson and Ben Austin are the leading Australians in sixth with the experienced pair finishing fourth in two of Saturday's three races.

David O'Connor and Robert Bell are just behind their counterparts in eighth, ahead of Steven Thomas and Kyle Langford in 15th.

In the Bronze fleet Australian crew Clint and Ty Marshall are fifth, while Sean O'Rourke and Harry Bethwaite are 15th and Robert Gibbs and James Garnaut are 17th.

Racing for the Gold fleet starts at 8.30am on Sunday morning with two heats and then the medal race scheduled for 1.55pm.