Sailing: Conner's hopes lying on dry land

The only hope of a semi-final place in the Louis Vuitton Cup for Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes increasingly lies ashore and not on the water, after a second comprehensive defeat at the hands of Peter Gilmour, James Spithill and the crew of OneWorld Challenge.

The international jury is due to hear Conner's bid to have the men from Seattle thrown out at the end of the best-of-seven quarter-final repêchage.

OneWorld Challenge stands accused breaching the competition's rules over fair sailing.

Prada of Italy left Sweden's Victory Challenge trailing in their wake for the second consecutive day.

Avoiding the repêchage process, both Alinghi of Switzerland and Oracle BMW of San Francisco qualified from the quarter-final proper. They meet each other in a best-of-seven beginning a week on Monday.

The two repêchage winners go into the second half of the draw, with the victor meeting the loser between Alinghi and Oracle in a late-December repêchage to find the second boat for January's LVC final.