Day three of the London 2012 Olympic Sailing competition was as tricky as could be with the full works of weather conditions experienced and the Kiwis made gains.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (NZL) competing in the Men's Skiff (49er) event in the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition. Photo: onEdition.

Tauranga's Peter Burling and sailing partner Blair Tuke, in the 49er high performance skiff, opened the day with a race win, clocking boat speeds of up to 20kn downwind.

'The breeze built a lot in the first race and we were a little bit over powered but the whole fleet was” says Peter after racing.

Sailing:

Amongst the chaos of wind, waves and tide, Peter and Blair followed up with a seventh place finish in the next race, and sit second overall after the first four races.

'We're pretty happy and still have a few things we want to iron out for later on in the regatta” he continued.

JP Tobin opened his first Olympic regatta with a fifteenth and a fourth place finish in his two races, so currently sits ninth overall with eight races remaining before the medal round for the top ten competitors.

After their fifth race early this afternoon, the Finn and Star classes were able to discard their worst score to date. Dan Slater's fifth race was the one to be dropped, but he followed this up with an 11th, and is still 7th overall with four races remaining before the top ten progress to the double point medal race.

Hamish Pepper and Jim Turner improved their overall standing as they produced two good races (5^th and 6^th) and are now positioned eighth overall and only three points behind the fourth placed boat.

In the women's match racing, Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt continued with their consistent form, winning their first race and losing their second race against the only yet undefeated team- the Australians. At the half way mark of the round robin, they are ranked 6^th equal. After the round robin finishes, the top eight crews will go through to the quarter final knock out.

Today is the first day of racing for Paul Snow Hansen and Jason Saunders in the Men's 470, and a rest day for the Finn and Star. The Women's Match Racing continue with two more round robin matches, while the 49er, RS:X Men, Laser and Laser Radial have two more races each .

Rowing:

Former Tauranga Boys' College student Mahe Drysdale is into the single sculls semi-finals after winning his heat.

The 33-year-old won his quarterfinal on Day 3 quite comfortably almost two seconds clear of Belgian Tim Maeyens at Eton Dorney.

He set the sixth fastest time in the four quarterfinals.

Juliette Haigh and Rebecca Scown will be the first Kiwis to row for medals in the women's pair final.

Emma Twig is also into the semi-finals of the women's single sculls coming in second place in her quarterfinal.

The men's four and lightweight women's double both finished second in their repechages putting them into Thursday's semi-finals.

Hockey:

New Zealand women's hockey team beat South Africa 4 -1 at the Riverbank Arena. The Black Sticks led 3-0 at the break.

They will take world No.2 Argentina on Friday morning.

Equestrian:

Despite Mark Todd and Andrew Nicholson missing out on a medal in the individual competition, they were happy to make it onto the podium to collect a bronze medal in the teams three-day eventing.

The New Zealand team with Todd and Nicholson, accompanied by Jock Paget and Caroline Powell and Jonelle Richards finished third in the three-day eventing at Greenwich Park behind Germany and Britain.

Mark Todd on Campino was third heading into the showjumping - but topped two early fences putting him out of the medal hopes, finishing in 12th.

Swimming:

Kiwi simmer Glenn Snyders failed to qualify for the 200m breaststroke final after finishing seventh with a time of 2 minutes 11.14 seconds finishing 14^th overall.

He will return in the breaststroke leg of the men's 4 x 100m medley relay on Friday night.