Welcome!
The GBR Match Race Girls are one of the top International Women's Match Racing Teams and are determined to represent Great Britain in this exciting new Olympic sailing discipline in 2012. Having gained National and European championship titles, and rapidly risen through the ranks to lead the World Rankings, Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Ally Martin are a promising prospect for the future of British Sailing.
Since learning to sail in Poole Harbour as a 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. Lucy and Annie have now teamed up with Ally Martin and launched their own campaign for Gold in 2012. Catch up on the latest news below, find out more about the team, or use the menu on the right to explore this site.
Credit: Wander Roberto
Credit: Wander Roberto
Credit: Matias Capizzano
Credit: Mike Millard
Credit: Kim Wolf
Credit: Kim Wolf
Credit: Richard Langdon
Credit: Getty Images / Skandia Team GBR
Finals here we come!
Friday 29th January, 2010
And the winning continued today… still undefeated we had some great racing, finishing our quarter finals 3–0 against Lotte Meldgaard (DEN) and then beating World #1 Claire Leroy (FRA) 3–0 in the semi finals!
We’re really pleased with how we’re sailing, and with how we are still chipping away at improving our tactics, speed and boat handling. The forecast is for us to have a bit more wind tomorrow from our 10 knot average today and after a very close semi final that went to 5 matches, Tunnicliffe’s team (USA) came out as our opponents for tomorrow.
Our aim for this event was a medal which we’re delighted to have achieved, but with that now secured, tomorrow is all about winning! Fingers crossed!
Lucy x
Check out the event website and Skandia Team GBR website for up to date results and a few words from Annie! There are a load of videos at sailgroove.org and they may well have live coverage of the finals tomorrow.
2-0 up in the quarters.
Thursday 28th January, 2010
Day 4 of the Rolex Miami OCR has been another great day for Annie, Ally and I. Our first two races of the day were against Barkow (USA) and Leroy (FRA) to finish off the gold fleet round robin. With two strong races we kept our clean sheet and so finished as the top seeded team going into the quarter finals, and are the only team to have not as yet conceded a defeat. Next was a short break on shore for us while the repechage round was completed and therefore our opponent for the quarters decided. After a three way tie in their results, it was the Danish team helmed by Meldgaard that finally finished 2nd in the round robin and was therefore to be our next opponent.
By 2.00pm we were out racing again against the relatively known quantity of Meldgaard’s team, as we had not sailed against them so far at this event. As they are a very experienced Match Racing team and with the wind around 8–11 knots, we knew the racing was likely to be close and it would be hard to gain any distance round the course. Two good starts gave us the jump however, and we were able to cover them around the course to win both races sailed. Although we were keen to continue racing and try and finish the job there and then, the race committee decided to call it a day and leave the remaining quarter final matches until tomorrow. Hopefully we can finish the job in just one more match tomorrow and start preparing for the best of 5 semi finals where we would be up against either Barkow or Leroy… but lets not jump ahead too soon!
In the other pairings, Tunnicliffe (USA) leads Whitty (AUS) 2–0, Souter (AUS) and Osbourne (NZL) are tied 1–1 and Leroy (FRA) leads Barkow (USA) 2–0.
Forecast is good again for tomorrow… bring it on!
You can follow the results from about mid-afternoon UK time on the event website, or check up on the latest video diary update from Annie below.
Winning streak continues!
Wednesday 27th January, 2010
Annie, Ally and my winning streak continued today as we started our Gold fleet round robin and won all three races beating Anna Tunicliffe (USA), Sam Osbourne (NZL) and Nicky Souter’s (AUS) teams. Also taking place today were races for the repechage fleet where two of the six teams will qualify through to join the gold fleet competitors in the quarter finals (the gold fleet round robin is just a method to seed the teams for the quarters).
The conditions today were fantastic, although it was a little chilly at our 8.00am briefing, the land soon warmed up and the 7-10 knot northerly breeze provided good close racing amongst the fleets. Our first race was against Tunicliffe and after leading in to the start in the last minute we were able to secure a strong windward position and match their first few tacks to then gain a comfortable margin for the rest of the race. Next up were the Kiwis and a fairly even pre-start led to us winning the side we wanted but unfortunately pulling the trigger a little early and starting over the line! A quick dip however and we were still hot on their heels up the first beat. Good speed helped us close the margin slightly and then a solid lee-bow tack by us, slowed them and meant on the next tack up to the starboard layline we were crossing their bow. Conservative sailing from then on gave us our second win of the day with one more race to go. The Australians won their group in the first stage so we knew they could be tough competition and with quite a random pre start it was still any one’s game until a call by the umpires (possibly wrongly?) went against them. We were then slightly on the back foot behind them with only 45 seconds until the start and not much time left to kill but a great execution coming up on the starboard layline with her below meant we started on the right, up to speed and with all our options. Matching their tacks up the first beat allowed us to pull ahead more and then extend on every leg to the finish.
Tomorrow the race committee will look to finish all four groups, the repechage, gold, silver and bronze fleet, allowing them to go into quarter finals on Friday. We’re really happy with how we have been sailing so far but are making little mistakes so will definitely be looking to work on those areas tomorrow before Friday’s playoffs.
Until tomorrow, bye for now!
100% on day 2 and through to the quarters.
Tuesday 26th January, 2010
Another great day for us today as we finished our group round robin 1st — without dropping a single race!
We are definitely through to the quarter finals, but will start a gold group round robin tomorrow to determine the positions for the quarter final play-offs. We’ll keep you posted!
Lucy x
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