Women’s Match Racing Update from Skandia Sail For Gold - On to the Finals

In the Women’s Match Racing, we saw a succession of epic battles to get our finalists. None more so than the GBR versus USA match, when Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Katie Macgregor met Anna Tunnicliffe, Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi. It was a critical match for the ISAF Sailing World Cup – Macgregor and co. were a point ahead for the tour so far, but defeat would lose them the title. They also started the day 0-2 down, but recovered the -0.75 awarded for damage in an overnight appeal. And that meant they only had to win three races on the trot.

It was a tall order, but they got desperately close, winning two, then getting the lead and a penalty on Tunnicliffe in the third. But the Americans weren’t done yet, clearing the penalty and getting the lead back on the run, and holding it to the finish. Afterwards, we spoke to a disappointed Lucy Macgregor, “The result is hard because we felt like we sailed well, but me in particular, [I] made some mistakes in the last race which I won’t forgive myself for a while. But we do feel like we sailed well, so certainly are disappointed with the final result.”

It was far from the end of the action though, because the French team of Claire Leroy, Marie Riou and Elodie Bertrand were only a point behind Team Tunnicliffe in the ISAF SWC standings. And the French girls progressed to the semi-finals as well, after beating Katie Spithill’s Aussie’s 3 -1. The semifinal line-up saw Claire Leroy on the tiller against the Dutch team of Renee Groeneveld, Annemieke Bes, Brechtje van der Werf. While Anna Tunnicliffe took on the other top Australian team of Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis and Olivia Price. No one really expected the result – a three-nil victory to the Aussies.

So if Claire Leroy went through to the final, she would take the ISAF Sailing World Cup title. The French team went two-nil up before Renee Groeneveld pulled a race back. But Claire Leroy, long-term resident at the top of ISAF’s Women’s Match Race Rankings, wasn’t to be denied and with her crew took the fourth race to go through to the final against Nicky and co.... as ISAF SWC 2010 Champions. Leroy was delighted afterwards, “To win the World Cup is a big surprise for us! We were so happy because as we passed the line our coach shouted that Anna didn’t win her race and we just couldn’t believe we had won the World Cup! We are really pleased, but we still want to win the event.”

Semi Finals and 5-8 Sail Offs:
Semi-final 1:
Souter (AUS) defeats Tunnicliffe (USA) 3 - 0
Semi-final 2:
Leroy (FRA) defeats Groeneveld (NED) 3 - 1
5th to 8th Sail Off 1:
Macgregor (GBR) defeats Kjellberg (SWE) 1 - 0
5th to 8th Sail Off 2:
Barkow (USA) defeats Spithill (AUS) 1 - 0
5th-6th Sail Off:
Macgregor (GBR) defeats Barkow (USA) 1 - 0
7th-8th Sail Off:
Spithill (AUS) defeats Kjellberg (SWE) 1 - 0

Quarter Finals Results:
Quarter-final 1:
Souter (AUS) defeats Kjellberg (SWE) 3 - 2
Quarter-final 2:
Leroy (FRA) defeats Spithill (AUS) 3 - 1
Quarter-final 3:
Groeneveld (NED) defeats Barkow (USA) 3 - 2
Quarter-final 4:
Tunnicliffe (USA) defeats Macgregor (GBR) 3 - 2

The event will conclude on Saturday with the Finals and Petit Finals.

For the latest news, go to: www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk