London, England – China's Xu Lijia used two top performances Saturday to move into first place in the women's Laser Radial sailing class, but the standings are tight moving into the medal race.
Xu won the first race, then placed second in the other to jump into the lead with the 10-race opening series over. Medals in the Laser Radial (one-person dinghy) will be decided Monday, but the picture is far from clear.
Xu sits in first with 33 points, but the Netherlands' Marit Bouwmeester has the same number. Ireland's Annalise Murphy and Belgian Evi Van Acker both have 34, and are third and fourth, respectively.
In the medal race, points will be doubled -- 2 for first, 4 for second, and so on -- and anything other than a good finish could end a chance at gold.
Preliminary races in the men's Laser (one-person dinghy) are also over, and Australian Tom Slingsby is well in front. He won twice Saturday and has 25 points, while Cyprus' Pavlos Kontides is second with 39. Sweden's Rasmu Mygren is third with 60, and will likely battle with Croatian Tonci Stipanovic (61) for bronze.
Round robin matches were completed in the women's Elliott 6m match-racing event. The crew from Australia won all 11 of its matches and appears to be the favorite heading into the knockout stage.
Eight crews moved on, including the United States boat skippered by Anna Tunnicliffe, the 2008 gold medalist in women's one-person dinghy. The Americans ended the round robin stage in fourth.
In RS:X windsurfer events, Spain's Marina Alabau Neira leads the women's and the Netherlands' Dorian van Rijsselberge is in front of the men's with two races remaining before the medal contest.
Australians Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page lead the men's 470 (two-person dinghy), while New Zealand's Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie are first in the women's 470 competition.
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