Elliott - Race Day 1
Written by RYA | 29 July 2012
Match Race Girls Happy With Solid Start
Britain’s Match Race Girls declared themselves satisfied after they enjoyed a solid start to day one of their first ever Olympic Regatta at Weymouth and Portland today (Sunday 29 July).
Women’s Match Racing is making its event debut at London 2012 with the Poole-based trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor also competing at their first Games.
The girls picked up one win over the Danish team of Lotte Pedersen, Susanne Boidin and Tina Gramkov in their first race before narrowly slipping to a second race defeat by the Spanish team of Tamara Echegoyen Dominguez, Sofia Toro Prieto Puga and Angela Pumariega Menendez.
Annie said overall she and teammates Lucy and Kate Macgregor were pleased with their start.
“It was good to get the first day over and done with,” Annie admitted. “It was great to get out there and we won a race and had another really close other good race. It was a good solid first day for us.
“I don’t think you can underestimate anyone here as it is the top 12 teams in the world and anyone of them could go the whole way. I don’t think you can go into any race complacent and we battled hard. It’s going to a long battle!
“It was a big day for starting, so we will look at that, but overall it was solid. We came back against the Spanish and closed it right back up and unfortunately didn’t get a final shift to overtake them but that’s all you can hope for in that kind of condition.”
The girls were racing on the Nothe spectator course for both of their races today, with the shifting, gusty winds proving challenging for all the competitors. Annie admits the having the support of 4,000 strong crowd was a massive boost to the girls.
She added: “We’ve practiced on the Nothe quite a lot. The windward mark was very close to shore and we could hear everyone screaming which was cool.
“It is very shifty, which makes it tricky to bank a lead so you have just got to keep going into each race and trying to edge ahead. But it’s hard to guarantee anything in those kinds of conditions.”
Women’s Match Racing takes place in Elliott 6m keelboats. Match racing sees two identical boats racing against each other in a series of one-on-one duels, progressing through round robin and knockout phases before the top two boats fight it out for the gold and silver medals. There are 12 nations contesting the event.
As a result the match racers are in action on more days than any other class and are not only one of the first classes to start but the last class to finish with the match racing final bringing the curtain down on the 2012 Olympic Regatta on Saturday 11 August.
Racing in the Elliott 6m class is scheduled to resume tomorrow (Monday 30 July) at 2pm.
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