ISAF World Match Race Rankings - France and New Zealand on top

by ISAF on 11 Mar 2010 France and New Zealand top the tables in the latest release of the ISAF World Match Race Rankings with Kiwi World Champion Adam Minoprio top in the Open Rankings and French skipper Claire Leroy returning to #1 in the Women's.

The match racing year is getting into full swing with the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland followed shortly after by the start of the 2010 World Tour in Marseille. Reigning World Champion Adam Minoprio (NZL) will start the 2010 season secure at the top of the World Rankings, whilst Claire Leroy (FRA) is back at the top of the Women’s Rankings after briefly surrendering her top spot to Lucy Macgregor (GBR).

Open Rankings

The top five remain unchanged in the latest release of the Open ISAF World Match Race Rankings. Adam Minoprio(NZL) completes his sixth consecutive release in the world #1 spot, followed by fellow young gun Torvar Mirsky (AUS). The French duo of Damien Iehl and Mathieu Richard follow at #3 and #4 respectively, with double World Champion Ian Williams (GBR) rounding out the top five.

Just missing out on the top five this month is triple Olympic gold medallist and TeamOrigin skipper Ben Ainslie (GBR). Ainslie lost out to Dean Barker (NZL) in the final of the recent ISAF Grade 3 Omega Auckland Match Race, but that runners up spot is still good enough to help lift him into his best-ever Match Race Ranking at #6.

Also moving up is South Africa’s Ian Ainslie, who won the ISAF Grade 2 Cleanport Winter Challenge to move up one place to #11, just two points off the world top 10. Cleanport runner up, Russian skipper Eugeniy Neugodnikov, is just behind Ainslie at #13 after moving up seven places in this release.

Further down the Rankings, Evan Walker (AUS) makes a big jump from #97 to #68 after winning the ISAF Grade 3 Hardy Cup in Sydney.

Click here for the Open Rankings click here

Women’s Rankings

Claire Leroy (FRA) is back at the top of the Women’s ISAF World Match Race Rankings, reclaiming the world #1 spot from British skipper Lucy Macgregor.

Neither skipper compete in the latest Ranking period, but Leroy regains the top spot as a result of a re-grading of the ISAF Sailing World Cup event held in Miami earlier this year.*

Australia continues to hold onto spots #3 and #4 in the Rankings, with Katie Pellew (AUS) leapfrogging team mate Nicky Souter (AUS) after beating her in the final at the ISAF Grade 3 New Zealand Match Race last weekend. Silke Hahlbrock (GER) is unchanged at #5.

Further back, Brazil’s rising star Juliana Senfft gains three places to enter the world top 20 for the first time at #18. Senfft is not just the first Brazilian to earn the distinction of holding a top 20 ranking, but the first South American, evidence of the increasing spread of Women’s Match Racing since it was selected as one of the 10 sailing events for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Click here for the Women's Rankings - click here

This next release of the ISAF World Match Race Rankings will be on 7 April 2010.

ISAF World Match Race Rankings - www.sailing.org/mrrankings

*At their meeting in November 2009, the ISAF Match Race Rankings Sub-committee decided from 2010 onwards all ISAF Sailing World Cup events would be changed from ISAF Grade W to ISAF Grade 1 events.

Unfortunately, due to an administrative lapse, this change was not made in time for the release of the ISAF World Match Race Rankings on 10 February 2010, which included the Rolex Miami OCR, second event of the 2009-10 ISAF Sailing World Cup season, as a Grade W event.

Upon notification of this mistake from the Match Race Rankings Sub-committee, the Rolex Miami OCR has been re-graded to a Grade 1 event (changing the Grade points multiplier for this event from 3.5 to 3.17). Consequently Lucy Macgregor’s points total has been reduced from 11,500 to 11,318 as she was counting her second place result from Miami in her top four events from the past 12 months (Leroy also competed in Miami, but was not counting her score there in her best four events).