Choo and Breault tied at the top in Vladivostok

The third day of the 2015 ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final lasted until sunset in Vladivostok, Russia with racing sandwiched between a four hour delay due to the drop in wind conditions.

Despite the wait, the Women’s division second round-robin was completed with Singapore’s Jovina Choo and USA’s Nicole Breault tied on six points. Breault took the first round-robin with a 100% record, with Choo replying with her own perfect score in the second. Both are followed closely behind by France’s Pauline Courtois.

French crew member Juliette Le Friec said, "We had two difficult matches today with Singapore and USA. We lost to Jovina [of Singapore] as I fell down into the water. The match with Nicole Breault [USA] was very hard. We had a lot of gybing, but we managed to win that race because the USA got a penalty.”

In the Open division the aggression was evident with contact and damage from the very first flight. Australia’s Evan Walker managed to get the better of Vladimir Lypayskiy to inflict the Russians first loss of the regatta.

The writing was on the wall for Lypayskiy in his match with Walker when he picked up two flags at the prestart. With a penalty for failing to keep clear of the leeward boat, followed by another for not keeping clear of the starboard boat, it left the Russian with a mountain to climb to hold on to his perfect record.

That Walker win means that both sailors top the Open division with only one loss a piece from both round-robins.

Walker said, "Races were a little bit later than yesterday. We had all three very close races. We started behind the Americans after making a bit of mistake and I got out of control but closed them back and passed them on the run.

"And the last race against the British was a really close one. They passed us on the first run and we managed to pass them on the second one.”

Lying behind the dueling leaders are the teams of France and USA.

Racing continues tomorrow with the completion of the second round-robin of the Open division and the third round-robin for Women before the highest ranked teams proceed to the next stage.

Results
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Past Results
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The ISAF Nations Cup was first introduced to the world in 1991. Open and Women’s contests are run and it is based on a series of Regional Finals with the top crews meeting at the Grand Final.

Racing at the Regional Finals is preceded by an ISAF Match Racing Clinic, aimed to help develop match racing skills and officiating in that region. The winners of each Regional Final progress to the Grand Final, where they are joined by the defending nation and the host nation.

The aim of the event is to broaden the availability of match racing and provide international match racing competition for national authorities and sailors at a reasonable cost, whilst acting as an incentive for national match racing programmes.

Find out more on the history of the event here
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(From the ISAF website: www.sailing.org)