Heading into day four of the championships, being hosted by the Lake Keepit Soaring Club, Australian pilots lead the club class and have finished on the podium in all three classes.

The event's spokesman, Sean Young, said the competition is "going very well".

"We've had two very good racing days," Young said.

Unfortunately Monday's racing had to be cancelled due to smoke.

The first day was a big one for Team Australia.

Lisa Turner shared first place with Alena Netusilove (Czech Republic) in the 18m class.

Netusilove flew the 478.20km task at 145.21 kph, beating Turner, who achieved 145.19 kph in her ASG29, by a whisker. These are blistering speeds over a nearly 500 km task.

Great Britain's, Elizabeth Sparrow took third position coming in at 144.57 kph with Australia's Ailsa McMillan flying at 144.10 kph in a JS1 to take fourth place.. The top nine pilots were all over 140 kph.

In standard class, Australia's Lisa Trotter took third place, flying the racing task distance of 459.95km at 125.16 kph. American Sue Arnold flew her Discus 2 to take top spot at 137.84kph with French pilot Aude Untersee second at 138.96 kph.

Australian pilots took the top two places in club class with former Lake Keepit club manager Jenny Ganderton flying the 411.94 km task at 122.71 to win the club class, ahead of Jo Davis on handicap at 122.94 kph in her ASW 20. Judyta Czyz took third position for Poland in an ASW 19 with a speed of 115.42 kph.

The first gliders back on day two were three Australians in standard class - Lisa Trotter, Claire Scutter and Cath Conway - who arrived in a line together with Sarah Arnold from the USA.

Trotter said they had all left ahead of the rest of the field.

"The first 70km was really hard and we only did 50 kph," she said.

"But at the southern turn point, we reached the convergence line and went up to 14,000ft. On the way north, our speed was up to 125 kph. We had cloud pretty much all the way around. But when we reached the last CU, we just had final glide and went home. I don't think there was much lift after that."

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The task for standard class was 459.26 km. The three Aussies achieved 124.02 kph to 124.13 kph and took joint seventh and ninth places behind Aude Unteresee (France), who finished the course at 131.48kph.

Germany's Cornelia Schaich was second with reigning world champion Aude Grangeray third.

Sarah Arnold, who took 10th position, leads the class, 124 points ahead of Schaich. Anna Piotrowska is in third followed closely by Australians Trotter and Cath Conway.

Ganderton followed up her opening day win with third in her Mosquito, finishing the 381.64 km task at 91.74 kph. Davis finished second, securing 955 points behind Celine Rault from France who took top position at 92.29 kph. Overall, Davis and Ganderton have the two top spots with Rault third.

The 18m class was won by former world champion Anne Decarouge from France. She flew her JS3 over the 465.07km course at 122.24 kph. She was followed by teammate Melanie Gadoulet and Marguerita Acquademi from Italy.

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