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
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Credit: Richard Langdon
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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
Our second home, Palma
Tuesday 8th February, 2011
Miami feels like weeks ago now and Annie is doing a good job of recovering so we are on to the next period of the winter now which is training in Palma. This morning my Dad and I finished our road trip which started from Portsmouth on Sunday night with a Brittany Ferries trip, then a drive down France to Barcelona and another ferry across last night to Palma. In tow as well as our rib we had two 470s and trust me with all that weight there was no danger of us breaking any speed limits! Today was meant to be container unloading before flying home this afternoon however unfortunately the container with our two Elliotts is delayed so I am staying out another day to hopefully unload and fly back tomorrow.
After lessons learnt in Miami, we are looking forward to getting back to training. We have a lot we want to get in done before Princess Sofia in April and believe we have the right programme with the right support to get a fair way down the to do list. There are a few changes to our campaign for 2011. A new coach will start with us on Saturday when we start training in Palma and we have a lot of exciting sponsor relationships building. In December we were delighted to team up with Oakley who provide us with fantastic glasses for performance on the water and we have a number of companies we are close to teaming up with in the run up to the Games.
For now though, back to the day to day I’m off to continuing setting up base here in Palma where not much has changed since I first came here in 2005; sea breeze still coming in at lunch time, coffee and sandwiches still excellent and many of the same friendly faces to help us in the yard and take the mick out of our attempts at speaking Spanish!
Lucy
4th at The Rolex Miami OCR
Saturday 29th January, 2011
After a fantastic weeks racing at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, the first event for us in the 2011 ISAF World Cup Series, Mary, Kate and I finished in 4th place after today’s petite final.
With a good win in the quarter finals yesterday against the New Zealand team we raced against Tunnicliffe (USA) in the semis but unfortunately didn’t beat the American’s to make it through to the finals. In today’s petite finals we raced against another American team helmed by Barkow. We won the first race by a very convincing margin and then were able to gain the lead in the second but had a penalty. In trying to rid our penalty we unfortunately got another and therefore lost the lead. It all came down to the final race in the end and it was Barkow that came out on top after winning the start and preventing us from making it up around the course.
Considering Annie’s very unfortunate accident last week and just our four hours of practice with Mary before starting this regatta, we are really pleased with the week and Kate, Annie and I can’t thank Mary enough for stepping in and doing a great job!
Lucy x
Winners of the gold fleet
Thursday 27th January, 2011
A short but successful day for Mary Rook, Kate and I at the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta today as we finished our two final gold fleet races against Skudina (RUS) and Tunnicliffe (USA), and won both to win the stage.
The breeze was dying as our turn to race came around after the repecharge group but it just held long enough such that the races weren’t too fluky. After both starts we were able to make the first jump and gain control of the race to cut off the options for our competitors and ultimately extend to comfortable wins.
With one loss in the gold fleet round robin from yesterday, we now qualify through to the quarter finals in 1st and will be racing against the New Zealand team after they finished 2nd in the repechage group. The other pairings for the quarters will be Skudina (RUS) vs Barkow (USA), Souter (AUS) vs Leroy (FRA) and Tunnicliffe (USA) vs Lehtinen (FIN). The race committee’s plan A tomorrow will be to race first to three point quarters and semis but it looks like the breeze could be fairly light so we’ll see….
Keep tracking us,
Lucy x
Another solid day
Thursday 27th January, 2011
After a long wait for the breeze to settle down this morning we finally got our turn in the boats this afternoon and started the gold fleet. First up for us was the Australian team helmed by Souter and after a split start we were slightly faster upwind and just held the advantage for the downwind. With them right on our tail racing remained tight downwind and by the leeward mark Souter had a penalty but was in control off to the left hand side of the course. As they went for their penalty offload it gave us the chance to gain the advantage back and once round the leeward mark we were in a strong position from which we could extend and win the race.
Our second race was against Leroy (FRA) and was a bit of snakes and ladders with them infringing prestart and being given a penalty but then us giving the advantage back by misjudging the line and being OCS. From there we then caught up and gained a good advantage ahead for the second lap however catching weed early on the second beat saw us get extremely slow and the lead passed back to the French for them to take the win. Somewhat frustrating but unfortunately just one of those things!
Our final race of the day was the most convincing win for us from start to finish against the Finnish team helmed by Lehtinen and a good boost going into tomorrow. So far in the gold fleet there are four of us on equal points so it’s all to play for tomorrow in our final two matches which will seed us for the quarter finals on Friday.
Keep checking the website out for Twitter updates and the GPS tracking.
Lucy x
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