Shaw claims hat-trick of race victories to inch closer to ISAF World Cup crown

Britain's Bryony Shaw claimed a hat-trick of victories in the women's RSX class ©ISAF

Britain’s Bryony Shaw claimed a hat-trick of race victories to take a giant step towards successfully defending her International Sailing Federation (ISAF) women’s RS:X World Cup title in Abu Dhabi.

Shaw has been in superb form throughout the event and has a comfortable seven-point cushion over nearest rival, Italy's Flavia Tartaglini, going into the final day’s racing.

Brazilian Patricia Freitas currently lies in third place with all to play for as points in the last races, due to take place tomorrow, count double.

Men’s 470 ISAF World Cup holders Mat Belcher and Will Ryan of Australia also look well placed to claim a second consecutive title as they finished the day at the summit of the overall standings, sevn points ahead of closest challengers Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergström.

A pair of second place finishes, as well as discarding a wayward sixth, ensures the dominant duo, who recently earned their third successive 470 World Championships title, remain the ones to beat in the class, with Stuart McNay and David Hughes of the United States still in contention.

“It's been great to race in the morning; conditions have been pretty difficult this whole week,” Belcher said.

“It can be pretty dynamic racing this early and with the direction of the breeze it can be pretty tricky.

“The racing has been pretty close, we pulled it back in the last race and had a good first one.”

It was not such a successful day for Austrian pair Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar as they lost their lead at the summit of the women’s 470 leaderboard to London 2012 silver medallists Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark.

The British duo started in ominous fashion, winning the first race before picking up a third-place result in the second, giving them a three-point advantage over the Austrian duo and Japan's Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka.

Australia's Mat Belcher and Will Ryan remain on course to defend their men's 470 ISAF World Cup Final crown ©ISAF

The Netherlands' Marit Bouwmeester has a slender one-point lead in the laser radial class going into the medal races after claiming victory in the opening race, before she came home in fifth in the second contest.

She heads the standings in front of Sweden's Josefin Olsson, who discarded both results after finishing 13th and 17th, while defending champion Evi Van Acker of Belgium is a further seven points adrift in bronze medal position.

Australian Tom Burton, the leader from the start in the laser class, was able to hang on to his overall advantage, despite enduring a difficult two races, which yielded eighth and fourth place results respectively.

Two-times Olympic champion Brazilian Robert Scheidt will be disappointed that he could not capitalise as he also discarded his two results and trails by three points.

Elsewhere, Scheidt’s compatriot Ricardo Santos leads the way in the men's RS:X class, two points in front of Spain’s Ivan Pastor Lafuente.

Croatia's Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic is the front runner in the Finn discipline and will go into tomorrow’s decider four points ahead of both Britain's Edward Wright and Turkey's Alican Kaynar, who cannot be separated in second.