OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992: Way begins to make waves: Boardsailing

PENNY WAY experienced a day of mixed results during the opening races of the women's boardsailing competition in Barcelona yesterday.

Way finished fourth, third and seventh respectively in her three races though it was not smooth sailing for some. A number of competitors finished on the wrong side of the last marker buoy because it had been dragged away by a TV boat. However, officials said they would not be disqualified.

After losing all sailing on the first day through lack of wind, frustration gave way to perspiration as nearly 450 competitors from over 70 countries took to the water in a breeze of 14 knots.

Adrian Stead and Peter Allam, in the Flying Dutchman, produced the best British result of the day with second place in their first race though they slipped to 18th in the second. Stuart Childerley had fourth and 14th places to show for his efforts in the Finn class. On the single- hander course, Britain did well in the opening Europe race where Shirley Robertson was fourth.

There was some anguish among the women's 470 fleet. Nearly half the 17 starters in race one - including Britain's Debbie Jarvis and Sue Carr and the two leading contenders for the gold medal, Spain's Theresa Zabell and J J Isler, of the United States - were judged to have made premature starts. Only nine were given a valid finish.

'What they don't realise is that we're not going to have general recalls,' Mike Evans, the International Yacht Racing Union's secretary general, said.