Anna Tunnicliffe- I did it!!

by Anna Tunnicliffe on 27 Apr 2009 2008 Olympic Gold medallist, Anna Tunnicliffe reports from Hyeres, France:

I did it!! I won the fourth leg of the ISAF World Sailing Cup at the Semaine Olympique Francaise in Hyeres, France, to maintain the overall lead in the World Cup standings.

It came down to yesterday's ten-boat medal race to determine who would come out with the gold medal. After having tricky, light conditions all week long, yesterday we woke to winds of up to 15kt, and waves. It was great to be able to hike again, and I was very excited for the race. I was in second going into the race with a four-point deficit on first, but a fifteen-point cushion on third place. I knew that I had to sail a great race to come out on top. To win, all I needed to do was to finish with one boat between Veronika Fenclova (CZE) and me.

The race started and I had a good mid-line start with Veronika three boats up on my hip. The trend was for the left side to be paying a little, so I was happy to start to leeward of her and lead her that way. In total, the whole race took about 25 minutes and in the breeze and waves, it was a lot of work. I rounded the top mark in 3rd with Veronika in 7th, but I knew that I couldn't relax yet. I maintained 3rd on the downwind leg, but then lost a boat on the second upwind and she had gained a boat.

There was a large gap between the 5th and 6th placed boats, but in those conditions, anything could happen. I rounded right behind two boats at the top mark though, and started the leg very fast. I passed one boat immediately and battled with the second place boat for the rest of the downwind leg. I finished the race in 3rd to Veronika's 6th place, which was enough for me to take the overall win.

A close battle for third place overall was fought between Marit Bouemeester (NED) and Evi Van Acker (BEL). It was won by Evi, as it came down to whether I finished second or third in the medal race.

The race was a lot of fun, and I am very excited to have come out on top. This was the first time I had worked with my coach, Leandro Spina, and I feel that we worked very well together. I am looking forward to our next event in Holland where he will be coaching us again. Despite Leandro never having coached Lasers before, I learned a lot from him, which helped make my week a success.

You can check the final results here: Semaine Olympique Francaise Laser Radial results , and you can click here for the ISAF World Cup standings .

It has been a long week at the end of a long trip and I am very glad to be back in the USA for a couple of weeks. I will be hanging out in Boston for 12 days for the Volvo Ocean Race stop-over, where Brad and I will be sailing around in the Puma foiling moths. Although I'm not exactly looking forward to plunging into the cold Boston Harbor water every day, I am looking forward to doing a different type of sailing. After the Boston event, I am heading to Houston, TX for a clinic, and then heading home for a week before I hit the road again for a match race event at New York YC.

I will send a report from the VOR stopover, hopefully with some great pictures of the boats.

I would like to thank my sponsor Carmeuse for their continued support of my campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London.

Sail hard,

Anna