Warden Owen loses ground

SAILING

SAILING

Eddie Warden Owen was the first of the seeds to be toppled in the Vauxhall Royal Lymington Cup yesterday, going down 3-1 to Andy Beadsworth as a fresh south-westerly made for swift sailing in the four-man First Class 8s, writes Stuart Alexander.

One of four pairs locked in the morning session on the western Solent, at least Warden Owen made it 3-1 in the best of five races. The other three pairings of the seeded Peter Gilmour of Australia - Beadsworth's opponent today - Chris Law of Britain and Thierry Peponnet of France, who meet each other, all scored 3-0.

In the second series to find today's eight quarter-finalists, Britain's Ben Vines pushed Ed Baird of the United States hard enough to seek a video review of a narrow first-race loss. If Baird's appeal succeeds, he faces Stuart Childerley, a qualifier from Sunday. Bertrand Pace dispatched Sweden's Helena Strang 3-0 and meets Denmark's Jesper Bank, who overcame France's Luc Pillot by the same margin.