Sporting Digest: Sailing

Averaging 20.5 knots, the all-woman crew of the 92-foot catamaran Royal & Sun Alliance yesterday clocked 493 miles in 24 hours. This puts them less than two days behind the world record schedule, set by the Frenchman Olivier de Kersauson, 38 days into their quest to set a new best time of less than 71 days and 20 hours.

Britain's Ben Ainslie took the gold medal in the Laser class at the ISAF World Championships in Dubai.