ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship - Gothenburg, Sweden

Top Eight Advance To Gold Group In Sweden

At the start of the second day of the ISAF Women’s Match Racing Worlds in Gothenburg, Sweden a light southerly breeze made it possible to start sailing around noon, although a couple of matches had to be cancelled and rerun.

In the light breeze every mistake was costly and difficult to repair. That changed with the wind as it veered to the west and came back with around 12knots. The matches then became tighter and more exciting for the many spectators on the GKSS pier.

As Group B finished their Round Robin the following four qualified for the Gold group. Silja Lehtinen (FIN), sailed extremely well, winning 7 out of 7, Claire Leroy (FRA) notched up five wins whilst Renée Groeneveld (NED) and Lucy Macgregor (GRB) picked up four wins each.

The other four crews go on to Silver group.

Come the afternoon the remaining three flights in Group A were sailed in super conditions. A steady wind of around 14 knots that changed back and forth from westerly to northwesterly, made the volunteers in the buoy boats work hard changing the windward mark time and again.

All the matches were tight and exciting but the most nail biting one was the last between Ekaterina Skudina (RUS) and Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) deciding which crew would win Group A with 7 wins from 7 matches. Anna Tunnicliffe came out on top, so the four crews qualified for the Round Robin Gold on Friday in Group A are: Anna Tunnicliffe (USA), Ekaterina Skudina (RUS), Olivia Price (AUS) and Sally Barkow (USA). The other four crews sail the Silver group for places 9 to 16.

ISAF Women’s Match Racing Worlds Microsite: www.sailing.org/womensmatchworlds.php

Event Website: /www.gkss.se/wmrwc

(From the ISAF Website)