DEFENDING champion Bryony Shaw extended her lead at the halfway stage of the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami yesterday with British Sailing Team crews well placed across the 13 Olympic and Paralympic Classes after the third day of competition.

Shaw, who is based in Weymouth, who won the 2014 edition of the season-opening regatta, added two race wins and a second to her scorecard today to stretch out a 17-point lead in the women’s windsurfing class with three days still to run.

She’s one of five British boats to top the standings heading into the second half of the regatta, with Weymouth’s Giles Scott and Portland Megan Pascoe maintaining their leads in their respective Finn and 2.4mR Paralympic classes, and 470 European champions Luke Patience and Elliot Willis and 49er pairing John Pink and Stuart Bithell advancing into pole position through their efforts on the water.

In spite of her commanding position at this stage of the regatta, the Olympic bronze medallist Shaw feels there’s room for improvement looking ahead to the rest of the week.

“It’s strange, it didn’t feel like a perfect day out there. I made a lot of mistakes actually,” the 31-year-old admitted.

“It was really shifty and puffy and I think it was my awareness, especially on the downwinds, that really pulled me through.

“I made a couple of silly calls by going a bit too extreme at the start so I had to make some pretty big comebacks today.”

With a gold medal at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi, a gold medal on the Rio 2016 waters just before Christmas, and another victory in the warm-up regatta to this week’s World Cup a fortnight ago, Shaw feels confident about her present form and hopes to continue in that vein this week.

“I feel like this is a momentum from winning in Abu Dhabi at the end of last year and the event we had in Rio. It’s nice to come out here and put on a good show.

“I really feel like 2015 is my year and it’s important for performance. I want to try and be selected for the Games and win a medal in Rio, so I need to be performing at that level now.”

Scott posted six and nine from his two races to keep Australia’s Jake Lilley at arm’s length in the Finn class, while Pink and Bithell were happy with their day’s efforts in men’s 49er skiff event – and their progress as a relatively new team in this highly competitive class.

Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign are poised in fourth in the 49er event with fellow British pairing Dave Evans and Ed Powys in sixth.

A fifth and a race win from their two races helped Patience and Willis reclaim the yellow jerseys in the 470 men’s fleet heading into today’s fourth day of competition, and like his former 470 crew Bithell, Patience is content with their efforts on a testing day on Biscayne Bay.

“We had a good day – some big pull backs actually. It’s not happening from the start, we’re picking it off bit by bit,” the Scotsman admitted.

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark and Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre continue their push at the front of the 470 women’s fleet, maintaining their overall second and third positions at the halfway stage, while Weymouth’s Nick Dempsey enjoyed a better day than his key rivals on the RS:X men’s course to progress to overall second.

Just one point separates the 2012 silver medallist from France’s Thomas Goyard in first and Dutch Olympic Champion Dorian van Rijsselberge in third.

“It was a tricky day,” said the 34-year-old. “This is the third day of this offshore 12-16 knots. I had three really good comebacks – I was kind of scrabbling around in the middle of the fleet but got an 8,8,3 which I think was pretty solid compared to the rest of the guys at the front.”

A race win rounded off Nick Thompson’s day on the Laser course to see him into overall second just a point behind Australia’s Matt Wearn, while there’s an equally tight battle developing in the Paralympic 2.4mR class with Portland's Megan Pascoe having a one point edge over team-mate Helena Lucas and Norway’s Bjornar Erikstad.

The Paralympic Classes conclude their regatta on Friday, so there are just two days left to make a mark. John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas fell foul of a large wind shift and then a motor yacht disrupting their race to see their overall lead whittled away on Wednesday.

They’re now in second, tied on points with the first-placed USA boat, while the SKUD pairing of Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell are currently third.

Nacra 17 pairing Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves are in second place on countback from the Italian duo Bissaro-Sicouri, Alison Young pulled back to ninth overall in the Laser Radial class while Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth are currently 10th in the 49erFX.