GREAT Britain's Yngling trio echoed team-mate Ben Ainslie's steady approach to open up a five-point lead over main rivals the Netherlands.

Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Lymington's Pippa Wilson have been Team GB's most consistent sailors throughout the Qingdao regatta and added to their tally with a second-place finish in race seven yesterday.

Hit by the same two-hour delay as Ainslie, after the breeze deserted the regatta yesterday afternoon, Ayton, Webb and Wilson were over a minute behind the American crew, but with six top-four places in seven races, the blondes in a boat' look Team GB's most likely medal winners.

"We stuck to the usual plan and were conservative," said Webb.

"It was right on the edge, but it was a good race, it was a fair race - it was great for us to have got a race in and for it to have gone our way so from our point of view, we're very happy.

"We're just sailing very well. We're on form, we're on fire and it's just all working very easily.

"We don't feel like we need to push it at the moment and I think that's a really safe place for us to be.

"We know we can just plug away and sail well and sail fast and come through the fleet nicely."

Webb confessed that Lymington starlet Wilson's confidence played a pivotal part in yesterday's racing.

She added: "There was an individual recall at the start. We were very close and we weren't entirely sure whether to go back or not, but Pippa was pretty confident that we weren't over so she made the call, we backed her and off we went up the beat.

"We came through, pulled up through the fleet again and ended up with a really good result."

Poor visibility resulted in the second races of the day in the Laser, Laser Radial, Finn and Yngling classes being postponed.

And with today's racing in the Yngling class also being cancelled due to stormy weather in Qingdao, Wilson, Ayton and Webb will be hoping for brighter skies tomorrow ahead of Saturday's medal race.

  • Meanwhile, Bournemouth rower Alison Knowles will take her seat in the women's eight crew for Sunday's final at the Shunyi rowing park.

The Great Britain crew sealed their place in the medal race-off by finishing third in yesterday's repechage, behind winners Canada and runners-up the Netherlands.

But Knowles insisted there was room for improvement ahead of Sunday's climax.

Knowles said: "We got a dreadful start and that made it a lot harder for us."