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Colin Thompson's Olympic Notebook

Past Argo Group Gold Cup sailors Ben Ainslie, Lucy Macgregor and Anna Tunnicliffe remain thick in contention for medal honours in their respective classes at the 2012 Summer Olympics in Weymouth and Portland.Two-time King Edward VII Gold Cup winner Ainslie, Britain's most decorated Olympic sailor, is currently second in the Finns where he is searching for a fourth gold medal at this level.Female skippers Macgregor (Britain) and Tunnicliffe (USA) remain on course to advance to the knockout stage of the women match racing event in the Elliott 6 meter keelboat.Past world champion Tunnicliffe, who was born in the UK, currently boasts a record of five wins and three loses after eight round robin matches.Macgregor, who is sailing with sister Kate on board, has four wins and as many losses so far.Past Royal Bermuda Yacht Club commodore, Peter Shrubb, is the deputy race chairman of women match racing at the 2012 Olympics.*The lower than expected turnout of spectators at the Olympic sailing venues in Weymouth and Portland has been blamed on “predictions of congestion” posted on signs as far away as Southampton and Bristol warning motorists of delays that have reportedly “scared people away”.Organisers had predicted an extra 30,000 visitors a day flocking into the region for the sailing events. But so far this hasn't been the case.Local businesses claim they are losing as much as 50 per cent of their business as visitors shun the Olympics Weymouth and Portland.In a bid to get more people to attend Olympic sailing, the road side signs have been changed to 'Weymouth 2012 games No Delays'.A park and ride site will also be free for the next two days in a bid to get more visitors out while people have been urged to get the message out via social networks.*The Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy will benefit from the improved facilities that the 2012 Summer Olympics will leave behind, providing a state-of-the-art facility for elite training, competition and community use.The venue has already started a community programme and has hosted the Olympic Windsurfing discipline, RS:X class World Championship in 2009, and the IFDS (Paralympic Sailing) World Championship in 2011.Located in Dorset on the south coast of England, Weymouth and Portland provides some of the best natural sailing waters in the UK, with facilities on land to match.