Sailing: Warden Owen on course

Eddie Warden Owen kept British hopes alive in the Lymington Cup yesterday, making the cut for the final four in the last race of the double round robin after being up against Chris Law.

Racing was delayed for more than four hours because of adverse winds and Warden Owen, with five races left, had only five wins from 13 races. Ahead of him, two Frenchmen, Thierry Peponnet and Marc Bouet, the 1990 and 1991 winners, were striding comfortably away.

Peponnet won the series with 13 wins and chooses his best-of- three semi-final opponent today. Bouet was second on 12 wins and the 1992 Olympic gold medallist from Denmark, Jesper Bank, third.

Going into the last race, Warden Owen had eight wins while Law had nine but the Welshman was the cooler, recovering from a slow start, winning breathing space in a flurry of mid-beat tacks and leading at the top mark by 15 seconds.

With just one round of the up and down half-mile course left, Law could not pull back the four boat-lengths by which Warden Owen soared triumphantly over the line.

LYMINGTON CUP Standings after double round robin (top four go through to semi- final): 1 T Peponnet (Fr) 13-5; 2 M Bouet (Fr)

12-6; 3 J Bank (Den) 11-7; 4 E Warden Owen (GB), 9-9; 5 C Law (GB) 9-9; 6 B Pace (Fr), 8-10; 7 R Heiner (Neth) 8-10; 8 G Lucas (Aus) 7-11; 9 P Campos (Sp) 7-11; 10 A Beadsworth (GB) 6-12.

BRITISH STEEL ROUND-THE-WORLD CHALLENGE Fourth Leg (Cape Town to Southampton) Positions (with miles to the finish): 1 Group 4 1,727; 2 Nuclear Electric 1,739; 3 Rhone-Poulenc 1,763; 4 Commercial Union 1,770; 5 Pride of Teesside 1,781; 6 Coopers & Lybrand 1,791; 7 Interspray 1,832; 8 British Steel II 1,873; 9 Hofbrau Lager 1,910; 10 Heath Insured 2,027. Results by BT