Miami OCR - Good day for Aussie Women's Match Racing teams
by Craig Heydon on 30 Jan 2010
Australian Nicky Souter and crew against Samantha Osborne Craig Heydon
Australia’s two Women’s Match Racing crews had a good day on the water at the Rolex Miami OCR with both crews tasting success at various points throughout the day.
Lucinda Whitty and crew Jessica Eastwell and Amanda Scrivenor lost their race against Anna Tunnicliffe of the USA for a semi-final berth but went on to beat New Zealand’s Samantha Osborne and American Sally Barkow to secure fifth overall.
'Lucinda and crew showed great improvement throughout the regatta, and this is Lucinda’s best placing at a world cup event as a skipper,' said Australian coach Dayne Sharp.
Meanwhile Nicky Souter, Stacey Jackson and Rayshele Martin sailed two good races against Samantha Osborne to take out their quarter-final match 3-1 and head into a semi-final match up with American Anna Tunnicliffe.
'The semi-final between Nicky and Anna was an epic battle,' said Sharp. 'Nicky came back from two-nil down to draw it at two-all and force a deciding race.'
'In what was a great deciding match with many lead changes and the boats never being more than two lengths apart the American crew crossed the line just one metre ahead of Nicky and crew. It was a tough result for the girls but great encouragement for the work that we’re doing at home to see that Australia is with the tope group,' he said.
On the final day of the regatta Souter will race against Claire Leroy of France to decide third and fourth places.
Australian Sailing Development Squad 49er crew Will and Sam Phillips head into the medal race in sixth position. The pair completed the final fleet races with a ninth, 13th and last race victory to head into Saturday’s medal race with a podium finish still possible.
In the Laser Radial fleet Australian Megan de Lange ended the day in 35th position after recording a 40th and black flag in the day’s two races.
Brendan Casey held down his overnight 13th position in the Finn fleet with a 16th and 12th on Friday, a strong finish in a very competitive fleet.
Australian Star crew Paul McKenzie and Philip Toth ended the qualification races in 14th, missing out on a medal race appearance by just 13 points. McKenzie and Toth recorded a 16th and 22nd in Friday’s two races.
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