World University Match Racing Champs report from UNSW's Tara McCall

by Ajay Rau on 1 Aug 2010 UNSW's Tara McCall's report from the World Uni Match Racing Championships.

I have just returned from attending the fifth World University Match Racing Championships. Yachting Australia selected two teams to represent Australia and I was fortunate enough to be one of those chosen and the only representative from the UNSW.

Being the second highest ranked entering the competition; we were expecting reasonably good results. After a disappointing start to the competition our team of 5, with skipper Jay Griffin (UTS) was placed ninth after the round robin. The top 6 teams immediately made it to the quarter finals, with teams ranked 7 to 10 battling it out via the repechage for the last 2 positions. We were lucky in the sense that we had previously won against the other 3 teams in the repechage fleet and this was considered in the results.We went on to win all 3 of our races qualifying us for the quarter finals in the gold fleet. The Irish, Singapore, Danish, French, both Great British and the other Australian teams also won spots in the quarter finals.

The quarter finals brought very tight racing with the first team to 3 points going through to the semi finals. We faced off against Goss's Great Britain team, who were ranked second after the round robin. We won 3-2 with some very exciting and close racing.The other English team, placed first with skipper Andy Shaw, won the ability to choose which team they wished to face off against in the semi finals, choosing Ireland.

This left the two Australian teams to fight it out for a place in the final. With the first to two points moving on to the final, we won 2-1, with the last race being separated by barely 10cm. Great Britain defeated the Irish 2-0, moving them through to the final also. The Great British team had made very few mistakes throughout the regatta and outsailed us in the windy conditions of the final, taking the gold 3-0.

We were thrilled none-the-less with our silver medals which were awarded to us later that day at the historic site of Heraklion Port. The other Australian team, with skipper Lucinda Whitty, placed third overall, hence making the fifth World University Championships a huge success for Australia.

It was wonderful to meet other sailors from all over the world and I'm sure the other participants would agree that it was a very rewarding experience.This event was beyond my expectations and I am very grateful for the University of New South Wales' support and encouragement to enable me to represent them, and Australia at my first overseas match racing event.