Medals beckon in Perth

New Zealand will have four crews in striking distance of medal success at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Perth on Sunday.

Fields are reduced to the top 10 placings in each event.

In the final of the men's RS:X windsurfing, Tom Ashley, the Olympic champion, and JP Tobin are in sixth and seventh places respectively.

Ashley claimed a win in the first of Saturday's races and took fifth in the second. Tobin had two seventh places.

In the Laser fleet, Andrew Murdoch's sixth and fourth placings, saw him tied for fourth, one point behind third and four points from second.

Unfortunately, Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie in the women's 470 fleet had a repeat of their Friday effort. After taking first place in the first race of the day they then suffered a boat-on-boat penalty against the same team as the day before.

Having to complete a 720 degree penalty turn they were unable to recover and finished the second race in 13th place. They go into the final race on Sunday in fourth place, one point behind third.

Another fourth placing is held by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke in the 49er class after they had ninth, 15th and 12th place finishes on Saturday.

New Zealand achieved reserved spots in all their nine classes for the 2012 Olympic Games on Saturday.