Day 12 Women’s Match Racing: Semifinalists chosen on a new course

Sailors competing in the Women’s Match Racing quickly put their frustrating wait for a breeze behind them to fight their way through the knockout quarterfinals at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships on Wednesday.

Light winds on day 12 forced the course to be moved out of Fremantle’s Inner Harbour in search of better breeze on the open water out by Rous Head, much to the delight of the sailors.

“Today was more like real match racing,” Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) said. “There was much steadier winds and it was so exciting to be out on a new course. It was a great day in the end.”

After the four-hour delay, France’s Claire Leroy, Lucy Macgregor (GBR), Russia’s Ekaterina Skudina and Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) quickly switched into race mode in the better wind conditions, skippering their boats to victory in their first two respective matches.

“The wait did make us very nervous but we were so happy to go out in the end,” French skipper Claire Leroy said. “It was very different to where we normally go, but the wind was much better for us.”

With the right side of the course seeming to have consistently more pressure, those who kept to the favoured side had little trouble keeping their lead.

Leroy (FRA-1) led from start to finish over Sweden’s Anna Kjellberg (SWE-1) in the opening match of Flight 91, Great Britain’s Macgregor had little trouble against Mandy Mulder (NED-1), Skudina held off Australia’s Olivia Price in AUS-2 and Tunnicliffe took victory over Nicky Souter in AUS-1.

A second win to each of the winning boats in the second flight of the day, put the pressure and excitement on Flight 93 with Kjellberg (SWE), Mulder (NED), Price (AUS-2) and Souter (AUS-1) needing to win to keep their semifinal hopes alive.

Kjellberg (SWE) gave it everything against Leroy (FRA) from the prestart, maintaining her lead well downwind and rounding the leeward mark ahead. The Swedish skipper was still within attacking distance as Leroy rounded the last mark in front.

With the two boats neck and neck just above the finish line, Leroy managed to cross first to secure her place in Thursday’s semifinal.

“We’re two steps closer to the trophy now,” the French skipper said. “We are so happy to be going into the semifinals.”

With her World Championship title hopes on the line, Netherlands skipper Mandy Mulder pounced on Lucy Macgregor’s lead as the British skipper struggled with her spinnaker. With Macgregor then picking up a penalty, Mulder crossed the finish line for her first victory.

Despite starting in good pressure, Olivia Price (AUS-2) was unable to hold off her Russian opponent, with Skudina notching up her third victory to progress through to the semifinal.

Nicky Souter briefly kept Australia’s title hopes alive, making things difficult for Anna Tunnicliffe after USA picked up a penalty early on.

But the world number one skipper managed to take the penalty and then the lead to notch up her third win of the day.

“We’re so psyched to be going through to the semifinals,” Tunnicliffe said. “Nicky was such a great opponent and we really enjoyed today. It’s one of our goals to be on that podium so now we’re one step closer to it.”

With just one semifinal place remaining Mandy Mulder (NED) and Lucy Macgregor (GBR) were the only two boats racing in Flight 94, their fourth match up for the day.

Macgregor crossed ahead of Mulder early, covering her loosely up the second windward leg. Despite carrying some nice pressure down the course, Mulder couldn’t get in front, making Macgregor the fourth and final boat through to the semis.

The knockout quarterfinal format saw four head-to-head matches between eight boats in the best of five flights. The first to claim three wins progressed through to the semifinals.

Women’s Match Racing is scheduled to continue on the Centre course on Thursday from 1200 local time.

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

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