Dempsey to challenge for a medal on day 12 of Games

There will be all to play for on day 12 of the 2004 Olympic Games, as Mistral windsurfer Nick Dempsey attempts to convert his fourth place into a medal position.

Going into today’s racing, Dempsey is currently lying in fourth place overall, ten points off third placed Nikolaos Kaklamanakis of Greece and 12 points away from Gal Fridman of Israel who is in silver medal position. He will be looking to have the race of his regatta to try and challenge for the medal places.

Also back out on the Saronic Gulf will be the highly competitive Star class. The fleet have now completed five races, and have a further two scheduled for today. Great Britain’s Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell moved up to seventh place overall after the one race yesterday and are just three points from Paul Cayard and Phil Trinter in third place. A good result in the two races today could put them firmly in medal contention going into the remaining few days of the Olympic regatta.

The Tornado catamaran fleet will also be back in action today and after a week hindered by light winds, the fleet will be hoping that the wind Gods blow in their favour and allow them to sail a further two races in a steady breeze. Charlie Ogletree and John Lovell of America currently lead the fleet by just one point from Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher of Austria. Great Britain’s Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley are currently lying in 14th place overall.

After a day of moderate Meltemi winds yesterday, today will see the return of a sea breeze. Although there may be more waiting around during start time of 1300, a moderate sea breeze of 9-12 knots could fill in during the afternoon.

View the sailing on the BBC today on Interactive 4 which will show live coverage at 1100 (BST) from the Mistral course and BBC 1 will also include live coverage throughout the afternoon as well as regular updates from the sailing venue. There will also be coverage of the day’s sailing activity on the BBC1 Olympic report programmes at 19 00 (BST) and 10 30 (BST).