Women’s Match Racing Worlds – Lucy Macgregor aiming high

by Ellie Williamson / RYA on 21 Sep 2010 Top British sailing talent Lucy Macgregor is hoping to convert her consistent season’s form into a medal-winning finish at the ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship, which gets underway in Newport, Rhode Island (USA), on Tuesday (21 September).

If she succeeds, Macgregor – joined at the five-day event by her crew comprising younger sister Kate, Annie Lush and Mary Rook – would be the first British skipper to reach the podium in 12 editions of the Women’s Worlds, which has been an annual fixture since 1999.

Macgregor and her Skandia Team GBR teammates are one of 20 top match racing crews from 14 nations set to compete at the World Championship this week, which will be raced with a crew of four in Sonars instead of the three-person Olympic match racing boat of choice, the Elliot 6m.

The Elliot 6m, set to make its Olympic debut in 2012, is raced on the ISAF Sailing World Cup circuit, in which Macgregor reached the quarter-finals of each of the six World Cup events she competed at this year, with a different winner crowned at each of the six events.

As part of their training for the World Championship, the Skandia Team GBR quartet has put some hours in on the water with their Paralympic Classes teammates John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas, who campaigned in the Sonar for the 2004 and 2008 Paralympics and are again for 2012.

Macgregor will count defending World Champion Nicky Souter among her main rivals, with the Australian also having won the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth last month, while the host nation’s Anna Tunnicliffe, the Netherlands’ Renee Groeneveld and Claire Leroy of France will also pose a tough challenge.

'Sail for Gold was our focus for the year but as soon as that was over we were straight into preparing for these Worlds,' Macgregor explained.

'They may not be in Elliots but the best teams in the World will be there and there are still a lot of tactical things that are very relevant to our Olympic campaign.

'Having not won an event in the Elliot this year, it’s our focus to get back into the winning mode and manage finals better than we have been, and that starts at the Worlds.'

Racing at the ISAF Women’s World Match Racing Championship gets underway on Tuesday 21 September, and concludes on Saturday 25 September.

For more information, please go to: www.rya.org.uk and www.sailing.org