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Sailing: Disappointment for Match Racing crew

August 7, 2024

It was a day to forget on Saturday for Skandia Team GBR’s match racing trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor, whose medal chances at the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta ended when they lost their quarter-final in straight matches to the French team, helmed by Claire Leroy.

“It definitely wasn’t the day we came out for,” said a disappointed Lush.

With the match racing, unlike the fleet racing, the couple of good days we had beforehand really don’t do anything for us. It’s a new stage, and the quarters is probably the biggest stage of the regatta because it cuts the fleet down to half, so it’s the biggest cut and unfortunately we’ve fallen on the wrong side of that today.

“I think you’d say Claire was definitely sailing well today and we definitely didn’t get the shifts right today,” Lush continued. “We had two really good, strong pre-starts against her and winning the starts, one even with a penalty against her and we were ahead as well and we just really sailed the shifts badly and let her get around us like that, so we’re very disappointed.

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Read related features:

Sailing: Mills and Clark get the perfect start

Sailing: Bryony Shaw makes solid start in Weymouth

Sailing: Match Race Girls hit back on day two of test event

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“In the final race it the first start we’ve actually lost for the entire regatta and it was the one start where we really needed to be ahead and it was a must-win race. It was a disappointing day, but other things we did really well – we were starting strong, we were sailing I think fast and sailing well. We just really need to work on one area of our sailing there in shifty conditions.”

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark maintain their lead at the top of the 470 women’s fleet, with a third and a seventh for their day’s efforts, while a tenth and a race win for Nick Dempsey keeps him level on points at the top of the RS:X men’s windsurfing leaderboard, locked in battle with Dutchman Dorian van Rijsselberge on seven points apiece after six races.

Bryony Shaw picked up her first race win of the regatta, followed by a sixth, in the RS:X Women’s windsurfing fleet to pull her up to fourth.

Racing will continue on Sunday (7 August), for all classes except the RS:X windsurfers, who have a rest day.

Louise Hudson, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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