Sailing: British team in NZ warm-up

Core members of Britain's 2000 bid for the America's Cup met at the Royal Dorset Yacht Club in Weymouth over the weekend before flying to Auckland for a warm-up regatta.

There they will compete against the New Zealanders, the New York Yacht Club, the French and the San Francisco Bay challengers who will be led by Rod Davis and Dawn Riley.

"Team New Zealand has been very helpful and one of their key players, Murray Jones, will be alongside our skipper, Chris Law, for this event," said the team manager, Chris Witty.

Simon Walker's Toshiba and overall leader Mike Golding's Group 4 are neck and neck a week into the fourth leg of the BT Challenge from Sydney with still 4,000 miles to go to Cape Town.