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
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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
Argo Group Gold Cup — Day 1
Tuesday 5th October, 2010
The Match Race Girls competed in three matches today in the Argo Group Gold Cup, including the very first match of the event, though sadly that turned out to be a loss against Bjorn Hansen (world #9).
The second match against Phil Robertson (#21) was extremely close, as you can see in the video below, however despite leading around the course Robertson’s experience and familiarity with the IOD yachts kept him close enough to the girls to prevent them taking their pre-start penalty just before the finish.
Match 3 was against Mathieu Richard, world #3, the top seed and current MRWT leader. The press release says it all… Macgregor takes Mathieu Richard’s Scalp in Bermuda :)
And on to the Argo Bermuda Gold Cup
Monday 4th October, 2010
It has been an amazing couple of weeks for us, becoming World Champions was an awesome end to what has been a successful but tricky year. The Worlds was a big focus for us so in many ways marks the end of our main season, but that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped racing!
After a week of holiday for Annie and I in New York we are now in Bermuda preparing to race in the Argo Bermuda Gold Cup, the penultimate event on the World Match Racing Tour. Sailing in the IOD boats they have here, a classic 1930s design 33ft sloop, and racing against the top men’s teams from around the world (including our coach, Ian Williams) will be somewhat different from our Elliott 6m racing but a great experience and I’m sure there are many valuable lessons to be learned.
We have been training over the last couple of days and have our final practice today with our crew for the week Peter Martin and Chris Britten, two local guys which is a bit of a change from our usual all female team! With 22 teams competing the format will be similar to the ISAF Sailing World Cup events we do in the women’s tour, three groups from which the top two go through to the quarters and the next two through to the repechage round.
There will be a huge amount of coverage of this prestigious event, keep an eye on wmrt.com, and as ever we’ll keep you posted!
Lucy
Argo Group Gold Cup Preview Video —
World Champions!!!
Saturday 25th September, 2010
We did it! 3–1 in Semis against Claire Leroy (FRA) then a very close final against Sally Barkow’s team (USA) which went to 3–2. All the detail to follow but some celebrating to be done right now! Huge thanks to everyone for their support, Kate, Annie and Mary for some awesome crew work and Ian Williams for some fab coaching! Lucy xx
The GBR Match Race Girls — Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor, joined by Mary Rook, are crowned ISAF Women’s Match Race World Champions — the first British team to ever hold the title. Photo: Fried Elliott / friedbits.com
Just one day left
Saturday 25th September, 2010
Another long day for us today but it feels like the week has flown by! It’s the final day of the 2010 ISAF Match Race World Championships tomorrow and we are 1–1 in the first to 3 point semi finals against the French team of Claire Leroy.
After the repechage round was completed this morning it was decided the Dutch team of Rene Groeneveld would be our opponents in the quarter finals. So with the fog making the windward mark hard to spot, around 12 knots and tide under us upwind, some exciting racing got underway. Our first race was somewhat disappointing as some action at the leeward mark which saw us round ahead of the Dutch while inflicting a penalty against them meant we failed to see or hear the change of course signal and so ultimately lost the race…no good! In the next three races however we sailed well getting two more penalties against Renee and winning all three by a comfortable margin.
Into the semi finals along with Barkow (USA), Souter (AUS) and our opponents Leroy (FRA). Our first start with Claire was looking a bit risky for a while but resulted in us getting an early cross from the left and then extending the whole way round to win by a good margin. The next race was tight at the start but a couple of tacks in, the French got a cross on us and although we threatened them we were not able to regain the lead on the first lap. By the top of the second beat we were right on their tail again but were given a red flag (immediate) penalty at the top mark for our rounding in which we thought we had room. We had great crew work and despite having to drop, spin and rehoist we were on their breeze again and making big gains, perhaps even ahead at one point but unfortunately lost by 2ft at the finish!
All to play for tomorrow, fingers crossed!
Lucy
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