WEYMOUTH, England (AP) -- Ben Ainslie has five more races to reel in Jonas Hoegh-Christensen or else lose his shot at Olympic sailing history.
After a day off, the Finn class resumes competition with Races 7 and 8 on the English Channel. Ainslie finds himself needing yet another Olympic rally as he trails Hoegh-Christensen by 10 points.
Ainslie is trying for his fourth straight Olympic gold medal and fifth straight games medal overall. If he gets the gold, he'll surpass Paul Elvstrom as the greatest sailor in Olympic history. Elvstrom, a Dane, won four straight golds from 1948-60.
After 10 races, the top 10 advance to the medals race.
Hoegh-Christensen has done well in strong winds, which could once again visit the courses off the southern English coast.
While the Finns and Stars took the day off, Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen had finishes of second and first Wednesday to extend their lead in the 49er class to 13 points over Peter Burling and Blair Tuke of New Zealand.
After watching Outteridge take an unintentional dip in Weymouth Bay on Tuesday, a friend gave the sailor a snorkel and mask.
Playing along to the typical Aussie humor, Outteridge stuck the snorkel in his mouth and draped the goggles across the front of his cap as he and Jensen sailed their skiff onto Portland Harbor.
"My mate said, 'This is for today when you capsize. You might need this,'" Outteridge said. "Thank God we didn't need it, but I had to wear it out to the start line. It was part of the deal."
France's Emmanuel Dyen and Stephane Christidis won the first race to jump into third place, where they remained after finishing 10th in the day's second race. They have 30 points.
While other classes sail 10 races to determine the top 10 for the medals race, the 49ers sail 15 races.
Outteridge could very well take a gold medal with him when he returns to his day job as skipper of Team Korea in the America's Cup World Series.
Then again, he knows firsthand how fickle the racing is in the fastest, most colorful class in the Olympics, which is easily identifiable by the national flag gennakers that are hoisted for downwind legs.
Outteridge was leading the medals race in the 2008 Olympics when he capsized not far from the finish line. He and then-crew Ben Austin finished fifth.
"There's a very long way to go. We've only done six races. It's kind of like a normal Day 2 for us," Outteridge said. "A lot happens on Day 3, Day 4, Day 5. We've got another two races in the harbor tomorrow with similar kind of winds. We've got to keep chipping away, doing what we're doing. All it takes is one bad day and you can lose 20 points very quickly. At the moment things are going nicely, but we're not going to get ahead of ourselves here."
The Aussies took a swim in Race 4 on Tuesday but recovered nicely.
"Goobs was all over it yesterday," Outteridge said, referring to Jensen by his nickname. "He had to get the kite down before the mast hit the water. We did an amazing job to get a fourth there. That's probably a good regatta-saver at the moment. It could have been an 18th or something had we have gone upside down. Thank God we didn't, and we're in a really good spot."
Sailing in wind that reached 17 knots Wednesday, the Aussies couldn't quite catch the French in the first race, losing by 10 seconds.
In the next race, the Aussies had the lead by the end of the first windward-leeward lap and beat the Kiwis by seven seconds.
Americans Erik Storck and Trevor Moore had finishes of 7-13 and moved up two spots to seventh.
In the women's Laser Radial, Ireland's Annalise Murphy showed she's human after all. After winning the first four races, including three by leading the whole way, she had finishes of 8th and 19th. The 19th-place finish will be her discard, and she leads the fleet with 12 points. Evi Van Acker of Belgium is second with 14 and Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands is third with 19.
American Paige Railey had finishes of 4-9 and is in seventh place.
In the Laser, Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus went 2-4 to jump into first place over favorite Tom Slingsby of Australia, who went 9-2. The ninth-place finish was the worst in six races for Slingsby, who sails for America's Cup champion Oracle Racing.
Defending Laser gold medalist Paul Goodison of Britain, who hurt his back in the second race, had finishes of 4-9 to move up to sixth. American Rob Crane had his best finishes, 16-26, but is in 32nd overall.
In men's windsurfing, Dorian van Rijsselberge of the Netherlands went 1-3 to stay in first place. American Robert Willis went 11-25 to drop to 13th.
In women's windsurfing, Spain's Marina Alabau won both races to stay in first. American Farrah Hall was 18-18 for 18th place.
