Women's Match Racing event first to set sail at Olympic test event

by Elliott 6m Sailing on 2 Aug 2011
The Women’s Match Racing competition will be the first Olympic Sailing Event to set sail at the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta when the Round Robin stage commences on Tuesday 2 August. The fleet of brand new Elliott 6m boats has been prepared over the last month.

Twelve teams from Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and USA will all sail against each other in the Round Robin. The top eight move to the Quarter Finals and their results will determine seeding. The remaining teams will be placed ninth – 12th overall based on their round robin result. The winners of the Quarter Finals advance to the Semi Finals and the losers move to a sail off to determine fifth to eighth place.

The winners of the semi-finals then advance to the Final on 11 August after the Petit Final on 9 August. ISAF Sailing World Cup Women’s Match Racing title winner Anna Tunnicliffe misses out on the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta after Sally Barkow was selected to represent the USA ahead of her.

The Weymouth and Portland International Regatta will also feature US Ssailing’s Rolex Miami OCR gold medallist Claire Leroy (FRA), Semainé Olympique Française victor Lucy Macgregor (GBR) and Kieler-Woche winner Ekaterina Skudina (RUS).

The New Zealand team, depsite earning an invitation at ninth place, was denied entry by Yachting New Zealand as their results from previous events did not satisfy the selectors requirements. This enabled the 13th placed team to gain entry to the event.

The NZ Koru Match Team continue to train in Weymouth, in a bid to win the NZ slot at the Perth qualifying event.

For the official website of the Pre-Olympics http://www.sailing.org/london2012/2011-test-event.php!click_here