(Written By Bob Fisher - www.sail-world.com)

After this successful event, there can be no doubt that Women’s Match Racing has a place in the Olympic Regatta. It fulfills all the necessary criteria of the International Olympic Committee, particularly with regard to its suitability for television, and it is this that sets it apart. True the medium’s technology could be more sophisticated and eliminate the need for cameramen on the boats, but that is but detail.

Here is an Olympic discipline that could also help to reduce the numbers of athletes in the Games, but it would need pre-selection regattas so that there would be only six crews, each of four women, to represent a country – a total of 24 athletes in the proposed new total of 380 (a reduction of 20) for the 2012 Olympics at Weymouth.

It is spectator-friendly, as I found out in Troia, where I was able to watch the action from off the water and still be aware of the nuances of the sport. Add a giant screen, in the manner of the America’s Cup viewing areas, and the spectators would be more than content.

The idea is one to which the ISAF should give serious consideration at its upcoming Annual Conference in October when the events of the 2012 Games are decided. There has to be a big shake-up as the number of classes is to be reduced from 11 to ten, once again an IOC demand, and this could result in major change, one of which might see Women’s Match Racing in its proper place.

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