Jesse and Zander Kirkland’s fortunes took a turn for the better at the ISAF World Championships Down Under yesterday.After having their hopes of qualifying for next year’s Olympics in the 49er class at this regatta dashed earlier in the week, the sailing siblings demonstrated that they can compete at this level by scoring a first place in the 12th race in Perth, Australia.That solid performance would have done the local sailors’ confidence the world of good and they will now be looking to build on that momentum in the hopes of finishing the regatta on a solid note.“It was nice to win the last one (race) in the best breeze of the afternoon . . . we won by 27 seconds,” commented crew Zander Kirkland.Yesterday’s conditions suited the brothers who capitalised on decent starts by maintaining good boat speed around the course.“The “doctor” finally delivered (maybe more like nurse practitioner actually) . . . 13-16 knots SSW,” Zander added. “We had good starts and pretty good speed and it was fun racing with waves.”Not even a freak incident in the tenth race could ruin the party for the 2012 Olympic hopefuls. The local duo were fourth coming in on a port gybe to the second leeward mark rounding when Estonia pair Tonia Haavel and Lenart Kivistick came across on the other starboard gybe, gybed to leeward, and luffed the Kirklands while being rolled. Both boats eventually flipped.The Estonians finished ninth while the Kirklands had to settle for 15th.“We had a weird flip when the Estonians luffed us with the kite up and we both flipped,” Zander said.The Kirklands also placed a respectable fourth yesterday but failed to make up any ground on the leaderboard where they remain 51st overall with three races left to sail.The Bermudian duo’s hopes of qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games were torpedoed earlier this week when they failed to advance to the Silver Fleet in the 49er class.A DNF in the third race left them with no margin for error the rest of the way and a 19th place finish in the eighth race effectively put paid to their Olympic qualifying hopes in this particular regatta.The pair will have another chance to fulfil their qualifying ambitions at next May’s Olympic qualifier in Croatia.England’s John Pink and Rick Peacock currently lead the 49er fleet in Perth a slim two-points over nearest rivals Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia.