Lypavskiy and Breault victorious in Vladivostok

The ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final rounded up with a win for home town sailor Vladimir Lypavskiy in the Open division and USA’s Nicole Breault in the Womens division.

Breault had been looking strong coming out of the final round-robin with a perfect four from four record. The American continued her fast racing in the semi finals to take a 3-1 win over 2013 winner, Brazil’s Juliana Senfft, to progress.

Her opponent in the final was France’s Pauline Courtois who came through a tough semi final against Singapore’s Jovina Choo, who had been looking strong in the round-robins.

Breault proved too strong for her French opponent in the final winning the match up 3-1 to be crowned Womens division champion. She said, "Well, the French team was very good in the pre-start. We started behind them and then we caught them.

"When it happens the races are very aggressive, we were making sure that we didn’t get tired. We enjoyed the racing a lot and we worked very hard to win."

To complete the division, Choo beat Senfft 2-0 to take third place in her final match.

In the Open division, Australia’s Evan Walker and Russia’s Vladimir Lypavskiy have been looking the stand out performers with near perfect records throughout the regatta. The only defeats had been inflicted on one another, so it was no surprise to see the two battle it out in the final.

Walker came through his semi final against USA’s Russel Silvestri 3-0, and not to be outdone, Lypavskiy also took a 3-0 win in his semi final against France’s Pierre Rhimbault.

With both taking great records into the final, something had to give between the two. After two matches it was almost predictably all square at 1-1. Spurred on by moving ahead in the third match, Lypavskiy took his confidence into the fourth and finally got the break that proved the difference. Lypavskiy had taken the final 3-1 to be crowned Open division champion.

Lypavskiy said, "This win means so much to me as the rank of the event is very high and I’m very proud that it takes place in Vladivostok, Russia, in my home town. We were a bit under pressure as we felt that we are expected to win. We were so happy to win."

The Russian’s semi final opponent Rhimbault took the third place match up with a 2-1 win over Silvestri to round up the competition.

As well as taking the titles of Nations Cup Champions, Breault and Lypavskiy get an invitation to defend their titles in the 2017 Grand Final.

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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.

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(From the ISAF website: www.sailing.org)