GBR Match Race Girls

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.
Check out our quick fire question round with @volvosailing at http://t.co/hlR9nz9W 15 hours ago

The Match Race Girls #1 in the World!

Wednesday 7th April, 2010

With the latest ISAF World Rankings released today we are back to the top! After another strong performance at the most recent event in Palma, we have once again leapfrogged Claire Leroy’s French team and using the correct rankings this time…!

In other news you may have seen the feature article in the Financial Times Magazine, and check out our interview on The Daily Sail. We’ve also been voted “sailors of the month” on the Skandia Team GBR Support Crew website.

There has been no rest since returning to the country last weekend as we are training with the Skandia Team GBR squad in Weymouth this week… might try and have some time off next week.

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Tags: 2010, ISAF World Ranking

Finished with a fourth.

Friday 2nd April, 2010

A slightly disappointing finish for us today at the Princess Sofia OCR, loosing the petite finals 1-2 to Sally Barkow’s crew, but another solid result overall to be pleased with.

After waiting on the water for breeze for a couple of hours, it filled in to about 7knots but quite choppy for our best of three series which led to some close racing. We lost the first race on a slight shift up the first beat and were never able to regain the lead however another wining start in the second race put us ahead and although under pressure right up to the line, we took the win and so were one a piece going into the final race. Another winning start just gave us control however the American’s held the right hand side and we were never quite able to get rid of them before the top mark. We seemed a little slow on the first part of the first run and struggled to put them under pressure enough so unfortunately couldn’t make up the difference before the end. It was tricky racing today and most of the week and Ally, Annie and I are certainly looking forward to a day off!….We may have to wait until Sunday though because we’ll be loading our boats into the container here tomorrow.

In the final it went to four races with the Dutch team taking the win in the end looking like they were sailing the boat really well in the conditions as did Barkow’s team against us. Plenty to improve on still so looking forward to Hyeres our next event!

Back to training in Weymouth on Tuesday, hope its not too cold back home!

Lucy

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Tags: 2010, Elliott 6M, ISAF Sailing World Cup, Princess Sofia OCR

Final day in Palma – preparing for the petite final

Friday 2nd April, 2010

After a long tricky day yesterday racing the quarter finals then semi finals we just arrived down to the club, are hoping for a little more breeze to find its way to us, and are preparing for the petite final against Barkow (USA).

In the quarter finals against Spithill (AUS) we were pleased to qualify through to the semis after three straight wins and our winning form continued into the first semi final match against the other Australian team helmed by Nicky Souter. Unfortunately with the breeze dropping and becoming increasingly shifty, we missed a couple of opportunities and ended up losing the next three to miss out on a spot in the finals.

Looking a bit glassy at the moment but hoping to racing soon!

Lucy x

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Tags: 2010, ISAF Sailing World Cup, Princess Sofia OCR

Princess Sofia OCR — Day 5

Thursday 1st April, 2010

Uncooperative winds have meant that the GBR Match Race Girls have been putting in some very long days on the water, so there has been little time for getting online and posting updates.

Yesterday the Gold fleet round robin, comprising of the top six placed teams, was completed with the girls defeating Meldgaard (DEN) and Spithill (AUS) to finish with three wins out of five, tied alongside Barkow (USA) and Groeneveld (NED). The two winners from the Repechage round robin, Hahlbrock (GER) and Souter (AUS), join the gold fleet to form the final two quarter finalists.

This morning the quarter finals have been sailed, with the GBR Match Race Girls dispatching Spithill 3–0. The semi-finals will hopefully be completed this afternoon, before the final day of competition tomorrow.

Follow the action via the twitter feed or on the Trofeo Princesa Sofia event website.

Update — by text message this evening: “Long, shifty, frustrating day. Won quarters 3–0 but lost to Nicky Souter 1–3 in semis. Led 1st 3 matches but v light, 50 degree shifts. Petit finals tomorrow against Sally Barkow.”