Shaw shines while Dempsey falters

(RICHARD LANGDON/OCEAN IMAGES )

Bryony Shaw is heading for a gold medal at the world cup regatta for Olympic classes in Hyeres, France.

The 2008 bronze medallist has an almost unassailable lead in the windsurfer class going into Friday’s medal race playoff for the top 10.

But her counterpart in the men’s division, Nick Dempsey, has failed to make the cut and his double gold medal winning wife, Sarah Ayton also seemed destined for an early departure after her first serious debut in her new class, the 470 dinghy, with crew Saskia Clark.

Britain was doing no better in the men’s 470 and the previously dominant women’s match racing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Ally Martin was knocked out in the quarter finals.

But also topping their class in the 49er high performance skiff were Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith, though by a much smaller margin than Shaw, and 2008 gold medallist Paul Goodison was neck and neck with Spain’s Javier Hernandez in the singlehanded Laser.

In the heavyweight Finn singlehander, Ed Wright made the top 10 medal race but his fifth place was 24 points behind the leader, Marin Misura of Croatia.