Match Racing Campaign for the Olympics in 2012
The GBR Match Race Girls are one of the top International Women's Match Racing Teams and have been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in this exciting new sailing discipline. Having gained National, European and World Championship titles, and rapidly risen through the ranks to lead the World Rankings, Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor are a promising prospect for the future of British Sailing.
Since learning to sail in Poole Harbour as children, Lucy and Annie have always been a driven individuals. After a successful youth sailing career for Lucy, and gaining 'blues' in three sports at Cambridge University for Annie, they both entered a full-time Olympic campaign with Shirley Robertson for Beijing 2008. In 2009 Lucy and Annie launched their own campaign for Gold in 2012, in the new discipline of Match Racing. In 2010 they were joined by Lucy's younger sister Kate, who is herself a top crew in her own right having won a number of championship titles and Gold at the 2007 Olympic Youth Festival in Australia.
Catch up on the latest news below, find out more about the team, or use the menu on the right to explore this site.
Thanks all! We had a couple of drinks to celebrate and are now back home sweet home in Poole....it is very, very... http://t.co/8zegrnH5 2012/01/30
Credit: Sander van der Borch
Credit: Richard Langdon
Credit: Jesús Renedo
Credit: Lloyd Images
Credit: Lloyd Images
Credit: Lloyd Images
Credit: onEdition
Credit: Toby Melville
Credit: Richard Langdon
-
Thanks all! We had a couple of drinks to celebrate and are now back home sweet home in Poole....it is very, very... http://t.co/8zegrnH5
Disappointment for us in the quarter finals
Sunday 7th August, 2011
Well yesterday was not really the day we were looking for when we headed out to race France in the quarter finals of the Olympic Test Event. We are really disappointed to have lost 3–0 in the knock out round, especially having had good chances to win the first two races.
We have learnt a lot from the racing, Leroy’s team are very good and we knew it would not be easy racing them but we needed to make it hard for them to get the win in the end. It’s tough when in many areas we are seeing big improvements in our racing however yesterday we just didn’t join the dots up well enough to get it right on the day.
Today we have had a day off then tomorrow we race in 5th–8th playoffs along with Holland, Sweden and Australia. Initially we will race Australia while the others race, then the winners of those two matches race for 5th and 6th while the losers race for 7th and 8th. We’ll be hoping to put a few things right from yesterday!
Lucy
Into the quarters after a solid day 3
Friday 5th August, 2011
Annie, Kate and had a solid final day of the round robin yesterday winning all three of our matches and therefore qualifying us for the quarter finals against the French team helmed by Claire Leroy. We had three tough opponents yesterday in the French, Germans and Americans and despite a bit of pressure particularly in our final match against the Americans, we were able to continue our run of wins to finish 4th in the round robin.
Today we have a day off while the laser radials and 470s start their racing then tomorrow we are back on the water to start the best of 5 race quarter finals. We have raced the French a lot in the past but not raced many playoffs against them recently. They are a very strong team but yesterday we felt really good when we were racing them and we are confident going into tomorrow.
The RS:Xs started their racing yesterday and the GBR sailors started well, Bryony getting an 8th and 3rd and Dempsey a 1st and 2nd so good luck to them today!
Now back to that day off…
Lucy
And we’re back in the game!
Wednesday 3rd August, 2011
Much better day 2 of the Olympic Test Event today for us with four wins out of four! See the video round-up below as Kate talks us through the day…
Racing the Portuguese, Swedish, Australians and Danish we again had really strong starts today and we pleased to convert them in the reasonably easy wins. The Russians and Finnish are having really good regattas so far with 8 and 7 wins respectively then it is all quite close in the middle of the group so tomorrow’s final races of the round robin will be critical for the seeding into the quarter finals. We just have three races left starting at 12 tomorrow against the French, Germans and Americans so we’re looking forward to some close racing as we have no major preferences as to who we’d like to race in the quarter finals.
In the boat park its starting to feel a bit more like a regatta now…finally! The RSX men and women start tomorrow which will be good as it feels slightly odd being the only ones racing at the moment. It was the final day of measurement today and the British team look to be in good shape so its a nice chilled atmosphere in the camp!
Unfortunately looks like we might get some rain tomorrow… desperately hoping this isn’t the end of summer! However are plenty of sunny photos from day 1 and 2 in our test event gallery for you to have a look at :)
Lucy
Tricky first day
Tuesday 2nd August, 2011
Well folks we have definitely had better days on the water than we had today for the first day of racing at the Olympic Test Event, however we are not too down about it, see the video round up below as Annie talks us through the day.
After a bit of a postponement, a sea breeze started filling about 11.00 however it never really build much above 6–7 knots so all four of our races were very light and shifty and unfortunately this meant a couple of small mistakes cost us a lot in the racing. Our order of races went Spanish, Finnish, Dutch and Russians today, all very good teams in the light breeze so it was never going to be an easy day.
We are really pleased with our starting from today having been in control of ever match in the sequence and at start time however finishing with one win and then three losses we know its going to take more than good starts to win this regatta!
Overall we were sailing well and know where we went wrong so to be honest we are ready and raring to go straight out and start the next races now… though as I look out the window there isn’t a breath of wind in the Harbour so on second thoughts we might wait until 11.00 tomorrow…
Wish us luck!
Lucy
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Supported by
