Sailing: Italian regains lead for final

AT THE end of a hard day, the fleet of 118 in the Laser European Championship were banging their hulls to encourage the race officer Roger Palmer to abandon the attempts to re-run their third race after it had been stopped because of a huge shift in the direction of the wind, writes Stuart Alexander.

By then, they had completed 13 of the scheduled 15 races to decide the top 40 to sail against each other in the final three races today and the cut was established.

Back into the lead has gone Italy's Francesco Bruni, who has a useful cushion over his nearest rival for the gold medal position, Britain's Simon Bowes-Cole.

LASER EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (Hayling Island): Race 12: Red & Green group: 1 E Melleby (Nor); 2 L Idmyr (Swe); 3 G Kelly (GB). Yellow & Blue: 1 J Harrysson (Swe); 2 P Moberg (Nor); 3 S Noirclerc (Fr). Black & Pink: 1 C Lahme (Ger); 2 M Littlejohn (GB); 3 K Suneson (Swe). Race 13: Blue & Pink: 1 R Stenhouse (GB); 2 A Garrote (Sp); 3 W Suneson (Swe). Black & Green: 1 F Bruni (It); 2 I Percy (GB); 3 V Serpa (Por). Red & Yellow: 1 Idmyr; 2 Moberg; 3 G Zakarias (Aut). Overall after 13 races: 1 Bruni, 54pts; 2 S Bowes-Cole (GB) 67; 3 T-A Kjer (Nor) 70; 4 Melleby, 73; 5 S Kats (Neth) 75; 6 Harryson, 84. Other British: 10 Littlejohn, 90; 11 Stenhouse, 93; 12 C Gowers, 97; 27 A Simpson, 150; 29 Percy, 152; 31 Kelly, 155; 33 S Cockerill, 157; 37 F Blencke, 170.