Three in a row to Australian yachtsmen
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Colin Beashel and David Giles
in action
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Four-time Olympian and former America's Cup yachtsman Colin Beashel notched a third consecutive victory to leap to the top of the Star class rankings on Wednesday before another Savannah storm closed in.
On the third day of the Olympic regatta, the Australian boat builder and his partner David Giles led around every mark in heat four, making the most of the 13-knot southwesterly.
"What he's doing out there in that sort of company is pretty special," said Australian team leader John Harrison.
They were denied a chance to make it four in a row when the storm broke, forcing the postponement of the fifth heat of the Stars and the Finns and the second races of the regatta for the men's and women's 470s.
At the end of third day the expected pattern of U.S. dominance had yet to emerge.
Denmark's former world champion Kristine Roug (five points) was holding perhaps the best performed American, Courtney Becker-Dey (seven points), at bay at the top of Europe-class leaders board.
In the men's single-handed dinghies, Brazil's Christoph Bergmann won heat four of the Finns to move to second place overall behind dominant Swede Fredrik Loof.
Germany's Stefan Warkalla was holding off Norwegian Peer Moberg in the Lasers, with highly regarded British youngster Ben Ainslie making a run at the leaders with a seventh and a second place on Wednesday.
The first races of the double handed 470s were dominated by the Ukrainian women and Spanish men respectively. Ruslana Taran and Olena Pakholchik raced away from the fleet to win by nearly three minutes while defending Olympic champions Jordi Calafat and Francisco Sanchez opened impressively.
On the boards, Hong Kong's Lai Shan Lee was a model of consistency, logging two second-place finishes on Wednesday to be equal on points with Barbara Kendall from New Zealand, the defending Olympic champion. Lee is vying to become the first athlete from Hong Kong to win an Olympic medal.
In the men's Mistral, another New Zealander powerhouse, Aaron McIntosh, Argentina's Carlos Espinola and Greece's world champion Nikolas Kaklamanakis were locked together at the top of the leader board at the end of four heats.
This story written by Reuters correspondents
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