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Overnight leader Paul TINGLEY (CAN) holds a marginal one point lead following three races in the 2.4 Metre today, as John RUF (USA) executed some fine sailing maneuvers for a pair of wins to seriously challenge the Canadian.

In a fleet of exceptional sailors where the finishes are too close to call, TINGLEY came home with 5, 2, 9 results, using the latter as his race drop.

In puffy and shifty sea breezes of 4-8 knots throughout the day RUF, "That's one R only thank you," came to the fore. He too, though, had a blip on his radar, a ninth in race four. 'The Ruf' did not repeat the mistake again in race five.

Even though racing had been extremely tight in the 16-boat fleet, with the lead changing regularly throughout each race, the gregarious American got away as the breeze lightened late in the race and his adversaries could only watch as he sailed to a clear victory while around 12 fought it out for the remaining places.

RUF confirms: "Race five was such a close race. Six boats were only within one metre of each other at the finish line. That should give you an idea of how close the fleet is."

In a twist of fate, Sydney gold medallist Heiko KRÖGER (GER) has an equal 15 points with the Athens gold medallist Damien SEGUIN (FRA), and the two hold down third and fourth places respectively.

Although he is in third placed overall, KROGER did not have a good day and is lucky the remaining podium places went to those further down the scoreboard. His best result was fourth place in race five, his worst, 11th in race three. SEGUIN fared better with 3, 4, 6 finishes.

The other standout today was Sydney 2000 silver medallist Jens Als ANDERSEN (DEN), who moves up to fifth place, just one point behind the German and Frenchman after coming good with a with a victory in race four and second place in race five. The Dane commented on his day: "My speed was fine. Things just came together. The Race Committee did an excellent job today, which made our racing easier."

Tomorrow is a lay day and a further two races are planned for Thursday.

Results - click here
ISAF Paralympic Games microsite - www.sailing.org/paralympics