Aussie mixed fortunes in Olympic trials

Australian sailors have enjoyed mixed fortunes at the London Olympics trial event being sailed in the UK this week -- but we appear to be a good bet for at least a couple of medals next year.

In the women's match racing, the Australian team was knocked out by Russia in the quarter finals. Russia went on to race against Finland in the gold medal final.

Jessica Crisp is lying eighth in the women's windsurfer event with just the medal race to go, while world champion Tom Slingsby -- after four wins in the heats -- is just one point behind Andrew Murdoch of New Zealand in the Laser event. The two will battle out for the gold medal in the final race.

In the women's Laser Radial, Krystal Weir is placed eighth and looks to be out of the running for medals this time around.

In the men's 470 dinghy Matthew Belcher and Malcolm Page are lying second on points going into the medal race and seem assured of taking the silver medal if they don't sneak ahead to take the gold.

In the women's 470 dinghy, Tessa Parkinson and Belinda Stowell are off the pace and are just one off the bottom of the fleet after the heats.

In the Finn single-handed dinghy Brendan Casey is 16th behind Britain's multi-gold medallist Ben Ainsley who looks unbeatable after three firsts, two seconds and a third in the lead-up heats.

In the Star keelboat Paul McKenzie and Philip Toth are 15th, while in the 49er skiff class pre-event favourites Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen are in the lead with four races to go. Outteridge and Jensen have scored four firsts in the 10 races sailed so far and look like certainties for gold.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, older Australian sailors are doing very well in the 2011 Laser Masters world championships in San Francisco.

Brett Beyer is second in the Standard Masters, Colin Dibb and Mark Bethwaite are lying second and third in the Grand Masters, Gary Ratcliffe is third in the Radial Masters and Robert Lowndes is leading in the Radial Grand Masters.