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
Strong start…
Monday 25th January, 2010
A strong start for us on day one with 4 wins out of 4!
After a really good race against Mandy Mulder’s team (NED) where we gave them a penalty on the first beat, the rumours of a big storm spread and we were brought in off the water for an hour and a half before finally getting out again around 3pm for 3 more races. Our next win was against the Finnish team of Chita Wahlroos, and then we had some excitement in our third race when during the pre-start Uli Schuemann’s team (GER) got stuck on the anchor of the committee boat and then later in the race were black flagged (disqualified) to prevent further damage to their boom which was damaged in the hit. So a quiet race for us there, and then into our final race of the day against the American team helmed by Katie Lovell. During the pre start we were able to give them a penalty and then with Ally calling us up to the line we had a good start and extended from there!
Tomorrow the Race Committee will start group C first for 4 matches and then we’ll be out again from around 11.00 for the final 3 races of our round robin. With 3 teams all on 4 wins at the moment, I’m sure it’ll be an exciting day!
For full results go to http://rmocr.ussailing.org/Results.htm, or look out for updates on the RolexMiamiOCR Twitter feed.
One day to go.
Sunday 24th January, 2010
We’re just in from our final practice session before the start of the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta tomorrow. With 24 entries in the Match Racing, the fleet have been split into 3 groups of 8 for the initial round robins, the idea being that each group will sail at least 3 flights each day. In our group we have some very good competition including two American teams, both Dutch teams and a German, Swedish and Finnish team. The forecast is looking good for the week with 15+ knots expected tomorrow, and our group should be on the water racing by early afternoon (we’re 5 hours behind UK).
We’ll let you know how it goes!
Lucy
Video diary:
Perfect conditions…but we’re not sailing in them!
Friday 22nd January, 2010
We have just had two beautiful days in Miami, however unfortunately we’ve not been sailing! The boats have been unavailable while they are prepared for the Rolex Miami OCR, so it has ‘forced’ us to have two days off to go shopping, visit the cinema and enjoy the sun… it’s a hard life!
Our training over the last week in the American boats and in this venue has been really useful, and we have gained a lot from it even though we had very light conditions towards the end. After a couple of days rest and relaxation we can’t wait to get racing, which starts on Monday, however before that each team has two official practice sessions, along with registration, weigh-in, etc to completed over the course of the weekend.
Lucy
Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta
Wednesday 20th January, 2010
We’ve now been in Miami preparing for the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta for a few days, and have had some great practice sessions. Having spent the last few months since Sail for Gold training in our new Elliott 6m boats we’re looking forward to competing again and finally testing how our training has been going! The regatta will be the first for us in the 2010 racing calendar, and the start of this year’s ISAF World Cup Series which we’re keen to defend having taken top spot last year!
Currently we’re chartering a boat for practice here, getting used to the conditions (and the climate, slightly improved from the UK!). We’re training against the other GBR team of Katie Archer, Nicky Muller and Lauren Martel, and have three more days of practice until racing starts on Monday.
There will be 24 teams from 16 nations competing from the 25th through to the 30th. With 206 matches scheduled in total it is going to be a busy week for all, in the first stage the fleet will be split into three round-robin groups of 8 boats. We’ll keep you posted!
Lucy
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