New Zealand is well placed to collect medals at the 49er and 49erFX European Championship in Helsinki with both Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, and Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech leading going into the final day of the regatta.

Despite an average result in the opening race of the day, a 16th, Burling and Tuke came back firing to score two bullets in the following two races as the breeze built on the gold fleet course.

Blair Tuke and Peter Burling (yellow bibs) in action. Photo: Mick Anderson www.sailingpix.dk

The defending champions now have an 11 point lead over Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen.

'Another good day for us. We started out the day with a 16th reminding us just how difficult Gold fleet racing can be when you don't execute 100 per cent,” says Tuke.

'We bounced back nicely winning the next two and with the discard coming into play, we carry straight firsts through the gold fleet racing.

'Three more races tomorrow for the top ten boats, in a theatre style format. It's still all to play for with the chasing pack headed by the Aussies 11 points back.”

Continuing the kiwi charge is Maloney and Meech taking the overall lead in the 49erFX class after placing 2nd, 5th and 4th in the penultimate day's racing.

The pairs leading margin is a narrow one point with Denmark's Ida Nielsen and Marie Olsen hot on their heels in 2nd place.

Like the men they have three races scheduled for the final day set to be run ‘theatre style' – which means short courses and fast paced action.

2014 Men's and Women's 470 European Championships

At the 470 European Championships in Athens, Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie are also poised to join the medal ranks improving their overall position from 5th to 3rd after day three of racing.

Sailing three races in winds of 15-18 knots with a challenging short wave chop on the race course; the pair placed 11th, 5th and 3rd to now have 27 points.

Starting out with what Aleh describes as one of their most badly sailed first legs in a long time the pair then produced a mixed bag in the rest of the race with an impressive comeback on the reach and downwind, only to follow it up with a poor upwind leg.

'The second race started out far better, we had a great start and were clear ahead in the front few, but once again did some silly things and dropped ourselves back down the fleet a little way,” says Aleh.

'In the start of the third race, we were head to wind, going backwards, directly behind another boat and at the wrong end of the line as the start gun went; really a very impressive combination.

'However we were fed up with being back in the fleet, so staged a rather epic comeback, taking about fifteen boats on the first reach leg, then chipping away at the rest to finish in 3rd. Much better.”

Austria's Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar are out in front with 17 points, closely followed by Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark of Great Britain with 18 points.

In the Men's 470 fleet, NZL Sailing Team pair Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox are lying 33rd at the end of day three.

2014 49er and 49erFX European Championships

New Zealand's Current standings 49er: (83 boats)

1st Peter Burling and Blair Tuke 28 points (23(cf), 1, 1, 1, 16, 1, 1)

30th (2nd Silver fleet) Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski

53rd (25th Silver fleet) Logan Dunning-Beck and Jack Simpson

55th (27th Silver fleet) Ben Goodwin and Sam Bullock

49erFX: (51 boats)

1st Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech 42 points (29 (cf), 1, 1, 7, 2, 5, 4)

28th Erica Dawson and Ellie Copeland

2014 Men's and Women's 470 European Championships

New Zealand's current standings

Women's 470

3rd Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie 25 points (5, 3, 17, 11, 5, 3)

Men's 470

33rd Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Wilcox 43 points (3, 21, 19, 22, 27, 18)