Sailing: Macgregor settles for silver in Miami

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British sailors bagged a total of six medals from the ISAF Sailing World Cup event in Miami which concluded on Saturday (30 January), but there were mixed fortunes within the GBR camp on the final day of racing.

With gold and silver already secured via Nick Thompson and John Robertson’s Paralympic Sonar crew, Ed Wright and Giles Scott made it an impressive 1-2 for Skandia Team GBR in the heavyweight Finn class.

But there was disappointment for the match racing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Ally Martin who missed out on the top prize and settled for silver after a week of dominance in the newest Olympic sailing discipline.

For Macgregor, Lush and Martin there was a nail-biting final in the Elliot 6m women’s match event which saw them lose out on the gold to USA’s British-born skipper Anna Tunnicliffe.

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Having not dropped a match for the entire regatta, the Skandia Team GBR trio were in confident form heading into the final showdown, and won the first two matches to come within touching distance of gold. But the turning point came in the third race when an umpiring decision at the windward mark went against them, opening the door for Tunnicliffe who won the next two to level the tie.

In the decider, Macgregor got off to a strong start, gaining four boat lengths on her opponent by the time they reached the windward mark for the final time, but were then faced with an unexpected loss of speed.

Lush explains: “We rounded the mark, gybed and then just stopped – we were really, really slow and just couldn’t get the boat to accelerate.”

The British boat had hit some rope debris in the water which tangled itself around the keel slowing them down and losing crucial ground on the downwind leg. The Skandia Team GBR crew lost the decider by just half a boat length and had to settle for silver.

“Anna was a tough opponent and was sailing really well in the conditions today, so credit to her,” Lush continued.

“I can’t say for sure whether we’d have won [if it weren’t for hitting the rope] but it’s unusual for someone to gain that much ground downwind.

“It’s a frustrating finish with silver after we’ve had such a good week. We were faced with new conditions today, light and choppy, which Anna handled better – but we’ll come away with some things to work on.”

The final medal of the day came in the form of bronze for up and coming Laser Radial sailor Alison Young, who exceeded expectations to claim her first ever podium finish at a major senior international event.

“It feels pretty good,” she admitted. “It’s been a good week and getting a medal is a nice little cherry on top!

“This was just kind of a process regatta to see how the winter training has gone and see what we need to still work on before the start of the European regattas, so I would’ve been happy with a top ten.

Elsewhere in medal race action, a tight race in the 470 men’s division left Nic Asher and Elliot Willis having to settle for fourth, while a second place in the RS:X men’s final saw Nick Dempsey pull himself up to fourth overall with Bryony Shaw improving her overnight position one place to finish the regatta in fifth.

Louise Hudson, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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