ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final – A perfect day for Aussie Crew

by Craig Heydon on 16 Sep 2011 ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final, hosted by Sail Sheboygan, one of four US Sailing Centers is currently underway at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA. Australia’s Women’s Match Racers have had a perfect day on the water with four wins from four starts shooting them up the ladder to first overall.

The Australian crew of Olivia Price, Nina Curtis and Lucinda Whitty sailed consistently well in variable conditions to move from their overnight fourth position to end the round robin phase of the event first overall with nine wins from 10 starts.

Price and crew started the day in style, defeating world number one and day one leader Claire Leroy of France in their first race of the day, before moving on to beat another of the overnight leaders, Juliana Senfft of Brazil.

The Australian trio picked up their third win of the day against Polish sailor Katarzyna Pic, then rounding out the day with a fourth and final victory against Rita Goncalves of Portugal.

'We’re pleased with how things went on the water today,' said Whitty. 'We had similar conditions to yesterday first up in the morning but then it got pretty light for our last two races of the day.

'Getting the two wins in the light races was really important for us as we’ve been working on those conditions and have improved a lot in that area recently.

'We had a great race against the world number one Claire Leroy,' she said. 'We managed to get a penalty on her in the pre-start and then stayed in front for the rest of the race which was good,' she said.

Price, Curtis and Whitty now have a day off before while the last semi-final position is decided before getting back into racing on Saturday.

'Finishing first in the round robin is a big advantage as we can choose who we would like to race against in the semi-finals,' said Whitty. 'We’re off the water tomorrow with fourth through to seventh place racing again for the final spot in the semis, so we’ll have a look at that and then get ready to go racing again on Saturday.

The ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final is a bi-annual event with teams qualifying through a series of regional events. Australia qualified after defeating New Zealand in the Oceania final in Sydney in May.

Racing continues in Sheboygan until Sunday 18 September.

For more information on the Australian Women’s Match Racing Team visit the Australian Sailing Team ISAF Nations Cup website