Foto copyright Fried Elliott
Fuente info Scuttlebutt europe
Lucy Macgregor Wins ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship
Newport, Rhode Island, USA: If Lucy Macgregor and her British team felt pressure this morning in her semifinals match against France's Claire Leroy, it was nothing compared to the emotions she felt coming from behind to win her first match racing world championship today at New York Yacht Club's Harbour Court.
The finals of the ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship played out better than anyone could have scripted. Macgregor defeated two-time world champion Leroy then faced the American team led by Sally Barkow, also a two-time world champion.
It was the final start that predicted gold for the British. "The time on distance was hard, and we were on our back foot the whole prestart," said Kate Macgregor, Lucy's sister. "With the current going upwind we just made it."
Macgregor's team, coached by World Match Race Tour winner Ian Williams, won the right side that paid so well for the Americans and kept the slimmest of leads all the way around the course.
For Barkow, though her team of Elizabeth Kratzig, Alana O'Reilly and Suzy Leech, did not win, their second place qualifies them for the top level of funding for the US Sailing Team Alpha Graphics in 2011. They join only one other team in the U.S. with this distinction, Paige Railey in the Laser Radial.
This world championship will certainly go down as one of the most competitive in history and Barkow's coach, match race champion Dave Perry, put the state of women's match racing in perspective. "This regatta indicates that anyone of eight or more teams can win a gold medal in Weymouth in 2012," said Perry. "In the gold fleet round robin, four of the six teams were tied with three wins. All this shows is nobody has put it all together yet. There are no breakaways."
Results
1. Lucy Macgregor, GBR
2. Sally Barkow, USA
3. Nicky Souter, AUS
4. Claire Leroy, FRA
5. Genny Tulloch, USA
6. Ekaterina Skudina, RUS
7. Renee Groeneveld, NED
8. Katie Spithill, AUS
http://www.nyyc.org/
