improve on his current standing when the Tornado World Championships re-start this morning after yesterday's rest day.

Booth, a silver medallist at last year's Olympics, finds himself in the somewhat misleading position of tenth, 61 points behind leaders Fernando Leon and Jose-Luis Ballester, in a tournament reduced to a total of nine races.

But with competitors allowed to discard their worst placing, Booth lies third, just three points behind second-placed defending champion Roland Gaebler and four behind Leon and Ballester. Booth, who failed to finish the single race on Monday and subsequently failed in his protest about its staging, swept back with a vengeance on Tuesday to claim second and first.

And his crew at Savannah last year, Andrew Lanndenburger, now skippering his own boat, is backing Booth to take the title if conditions remain the same.

"It all depends on the wind,'' said Lanndenburger. "If it blows hard, he'll be hard to stop.'' The Bermuda Weather Service, however, last night issued its own blow to Booth's hopes: It was predicting light winds today.