Strong Winds Frustrate Sailors On Third Day In Medemblik

It was a frustrating third day for the sailors at the Delta Lloyd Regatta. With wind increasing to 30 knots, racing was abandoned and boats sent to shore after just four races were completed.

In The Women’s Match Racing, just six races took place in Group B before abandonment. Renee Groeneveld (NED) qualified for the Gold Group after defeating Julie Bossard (FRA). Groeneveld has won seven out of eight races and has one more to go.

With one race apiece remaining, Ekaterina Skudina (RUS), Silja Lehtinen (FIN), Anna Kjelberg (SWE) and Stephanie Hazard (NZL) are in contention for the final two qualification places. With six race wins China’s Ru Wang has completed her nine races and if results go her way she will qualify for the Gold Group.

The top three in each group go through to the Gold Group and the fourth through sixth in each Group will sail in the Repechage Round Robin At the conclusion of the Rechechage, the top two will advance to join the Gold Group in the knock-out Quarter-Finals.

After a long postponement on shore, the race committee announced that further sailing was cancelled for the day. Tomorrow’s forecast predicts a more “sailable” weather and racing will start at 9am for the Women Match Racing and from 10am for the other classes.

Results after Day Three:

Group A – 1- Echegoyen (ESP) 8-0; 2- Tunnicliffe (USA) 6-2; 3- Roca-ESP 5-3, 4-Spithill (AUS) 4-4; 5- Abrahamsen (DEN) 4-4; 6- Tulloch (USA) 4-4; 7- Dekleva Paoli (SLO) 3-5; 8- Price (AUS) 2-6; 9- Goncalves (POR) 0-8.

Group B - Groeneveld (NED) 7-1; Skudina (RUS) 6-2; Hazard (NZL) 6-2; Wang (CHN) 6-3; Lehtinen (FIN) 5-3; Kjellberg (SWE) 5-3; Mulder (NED) 4-5; Mota (BRA) 2-7; Bossard (FRA) 1-7; Gordon (CAN) 0-9.

Racing started on Tuesday, 24 May in Medemblik and continues through Sunday, 29 May. The nineteen teams have been divided into 2 groups to sail the initial stage round robins to seed the knock-out stages for the top eight and after nearly 180 matches the champion will be crowned after the series between the final pair on Sunday.

The teams are competing in equally matched event-provided Elliott 6m keelboats - the same boats that will be used in the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition in Weymouth, England.

For more information, please visit
www.WIMRA.org or www.deltalloydregatta.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This press release was prepared by the Women’s International Match Racing Association (WIMRA). WIMRA can be found at www.WIMRA.org, www.Facebook.com/WIMRA, www.twitter.com/WIMRA, and www.youtube.com/user/WIMRAMatchRace

Contact the WIMRA Press Office at PressOffice (at) wimra.org