Star sailors Jesse and Zander Kirkland mounted a courageous fightback at the Olympic sailing venue in Weymouth yesterday.With their hopes of reaching the medal race still slim, the brothers upstaged some of the world’s elite on the way to producing their best showing to date at these Games.The local team posted impressive finishes of sixth, tenth and 12th sailing in fluky 12-16 knot breezes on the Nothe Course that kept sailors guessing all afternoon.The timely performance breathed much needed life in to the Kirklands’ flagging Olympic campaign and kept the pair’s hopes of reaching the medal race alive if only just.The top ten teams after 15 races and one discard will advance to the medal race. The Kirklands are currently 18th in the 20-boat fleet, 52 points adrift of tenth-placed USA with four races remaining before the fleet is divided in half.Summing up yesterday’s superb showing that would have done the team’s confidence the world of good, skipper Jesse said: “We made a couple of little mistakes but overall we were happy with the way things went.”Among the favourites the local team left trailing in their wake during the first race were four-time 49er world champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia.“That start really helped and it’s always nice to start the day on the right foot,” skipper Jesse said. “We had a strategy and we just tried our best to execute it.”Sailing in front of a small yet vociferous band of followers that included proud parents Malcolm and Martha, the Kirklands generated good boat speed on the windward/leeward course and for the most part made the right tactical calls and got around the markers with minimum fuss.“I thought we played our cards really well sailing upwind and made some pretty big gains downwind as well,” skipper Jesse said. “We were essentially keeping our eyes on the wind more than on any other boats.”Yesterday saw the 49er fleet compete in three eight-legged races that took a physical toll on the teams, especially when tacking upwind in strong puffs sweeping off the English Channel.“We did 12 upwind beats and on nine or ten of them we did really well, so that was pretty impressive,” Jesse said.The Kirklands now intend to build on yesterday’s solid showing when racing resumes tomorrow in Weymouth Bay following today’s rest day for the 49er fleet.When asked about his team’s chances of reaching the medal race, skipper Jesse replied: “We just want to end on a strong note. We just want to let people know that we have the ability to play in this field.“We just want to go out there and sail some good races and prove that we are worthy of being in this fleet.”Finland’s Lauri Lehtinen and Kalle Bask won yesterday’s opening race while scoring bullets in the second and third races were Germany’s Tobias Schadewaldf and Hannes Baumann and New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke respectively.Aussie pair Outteridge and Jensen are the fleet’s overall leaders.* The battle line between gold medal contenders Ben Ainslie (Britain) and Jonas Hogh-Christensen (Denmark) has clearly been drawn.Two-time King Edward Gold Cup VII winner Ainslie has accused his Danish rival of “concerted cheating” during the second of two races in the Finn class on Thursday.But Christensen, who currently leads the Finn class by two points over son-of-the-soil Ainslie, hit back by questioning his English rival’s integrity and sportsmanship.The row between the two sailors broke out after Christensen and a Dutch competitor claimed Ainslie had hit a mark on the race course.Ainslie, who denies hitting the mark, completed a penalty turn but still managed to finish the race ahead of Christensen to step up his bid for a fourth Olympic gold medal.