U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship Final a thriller

by Jake Fish on 12 Jul 2010 U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship.

US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) member and defending U.S. Women’s Match Racing Champion (USWMRC) Genny Tulloch (San Francisco, Calif.), successfully defended her title by edging former USSTAG member and 2005 USWMR Champion Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.) in the Finals. It took all five races to decide a champion as Tulloch held off a hard charging Barkow in a first-to-win-three-races Finals format. The USWMRC is a US Sailing National Championship event.

In the finals, Barkow drew first blood with Tulloch who gained a penalty for not keeping clear. Tulloch was able to shed the penalty on the second upwind leg and stay ahead for the win. Trailing 1-0, Barkow came back and won the next two. However, Team Tulloch rallied to win the final two races to capture her second career USWMRC title. According to Tulloch, 'Our speed was up or down – I think it depended on how hard we were hiking or depowered. We were hiking hard at the end.'

During the post-race press conference, Barkow explained, 'We tried to fight back hard and do something the last two legs with both penalties, but we didn’t have enough to make it happen,' explained Barkow. 'I thought we had good starts and good upwind speed,' she added.

'It was really tough racing. Both teams (Barkow and Roble) were really fast upwind,' Tulloch said. 'We were just trying to hold on for the two races we lost in the middle and then we were do-or-die for the last two and drew penalties against her (Barkow) the last two and won across the line.'

'We got a little better with our upwind speed as the day went on. We were really on fire in terms of communication,' Tulloch added.

The former College Sailor of the Year was joined by USSTAG teammate and crew Alice Manard (Charleston, S.C.), Lindsay Bartel (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) and Karina Vogen Shelton (Watsonville, Calif.). Team Tulloch defeated USSTAG teammate Anna Tunnicliffe in last year’s finals, after losing to Tunnicliffe in the 2008 finals. Tulloch is currently ninth in the ISAF Women’s Match Racing world rankings.

Barkow (Nashotah, Wis.) returned to the USWMRC for the first time since winning the event in 2005. Barkow has been a busy match racer as of late. She is 11th in the ISAF Women’s Match Racing world rankings.

Tulloch advanced to the Finals by defeating Stephanie Roble (East Troy, Wis.) this morning in a best-of-three semifinal series, 2-1. Barkow blanked Maegan Ruhlman (Cleveland, Ohio) in the semifinals, 2-0. Ruhlman finished in third place by defeating Roble in the Petit Finals, 2-0.

Prior to the start of the event, skippers were pre-ranked using the ISAF Match Race Sailing Rankings. The win gives Tulloch the opportunity to represent the U.S. at the ISAF Nations Cup Series on Sept. 13-18, 2011.

US Sailing’s U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship, hosted by the US Sailing Center of Sheboygan and sponsored by Rolex Watch U.S.A. and Gill North America, was race in Sonars on Lake Michigan. Visit the event website at http://championships.ussailing.org/Adult/USWMRC.htm for final results, daily recaps, photos and more.