Upset win ends day three of Women’s Match Racing Group A

Day three of the Women’s Match racing in Fremantle’s Inner Harbour saw Germany’s Silke Hahlbrock defeat World No. 1 Anna Tunnicliffe (USA-1) in an upset win.

As the sun was starting to set on flight 16, Hahlbrock managed to edge over the line in front of previously undefeated Tunnicliffe.

“That race wasn’t really ours, so it didn’t really give us too much confidence in beating her because we didn’t really sail very well,” Hahlbrook said. “But we never gave up.”

“We picked up some weeds on the second lap and couldn’t get rid of it but our team sailed really, really well,” Tunnicliffe said. “We found ourselves in difficult situations at times and managed to rally back.”

In the previous flight Hahlbrock (GER) had managed to edge out Australia’s Nicky Souter, also previously undefeated, in another tight match.

It was also a great day for Finland’s Silija Lehtinen, who is yet to lose a match, despite stiff competition throughout the day.

The lighter winds in the afternoon caused the ISAF Race Committee to change the course to an M3 configuration meaning the sailors had to do three laps of the course.

This proved challenging for both competitors and spectators alike as the boats jumbled together resembling more of a fleet race than a match race causing successive penalties.

At the conclusion of day three, Finland remained the only undefeated team with USA-1, AUS-1, GER, and NZL also finishing strongly.

Women’s Match Racing is scheduled to start on Tuesday at 1000 Perth time on the Inner Harbour course.

(From the Perth 2011 website: www.Perth2011.com)

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