Echegoyen (ESP) and Skudina (RUS) Are Atop the Leaderboard on Day One at Delta Lloyd Regatta

May 24, 2011 - PRLog -- The first day of the 2011 Delta Lloyd Regatta Women’s Match Racing event was sailing in difficult conditions with lots of wind and shifts. Nine flights were sailed between the two groups, but many more races will be sailed before it is determined who will advance to the next stages.

Tamara Echegoyen (ESP) and her team (Angela Pumariega and Sofia Toro) are undefeated after day one and stand alone atop the leaderboard for Group A. “The conditions today were very difficult and shifty. As a team, we are very used to sailing with that kind of winds and have practiced the maneuvers. We have been training very hard with some very good sparring partners over the last few months and the training and dedication is paying off. We will try to go on the same way tomorrow for the next matches.”

In Group B, Ekaterina Skudina (RUS) and her team (Elena Siuzeva and Irina Lotsmanova) also had a perfect day to lead Group B with a 4-0 record.

One of the pre-event favourites, Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) thought they had a so-so day on the water in Group A: “We went 2-2 today. It was very breezy and shifty - blowing offshore 10-25 knots. We made it harder on ourselves than we needed. On to tomorrow.”

Results after Day One:

Group A – Echegoyen (ESP) 4-0; Spithill (AUS) 2-1; Roca (ESP) 2-1; Abrahamsen (DEN) 2-1; Tulloch (USA) 2-2; Tunnicliffe (USA) 2-2; Dekleva Paoli (SLO) 1-2; Price (AUS) 1-3; Goncalves (POR) 0-4.

Group B - Skudina (RUS) 4-0; Groeneveld (NED) 3-1; Kjellberg (SWE) 3-1; Hazard (NZL) 3-1; Wang (CHN) 3-1; Lehtinen (FIN) 2-2; Mulder (NED) 1-3; Bossard (FRA) 1-3; Mota (BRA) 0-4; Gordon (CAN) 0-4.

The first stage round robins will continue on Wednesday with lighter winds predicted. Group A will sail in the morning followed by Group B.

Racing started on Tuesday, 24 May in Medemblik and continues through Sunday, 29 May. The nineteen teams have been divided into 2 groups to sail the initial stage round robins to seed the knock-out stages for the top eight and after nearly 180 matches the champion will be crowned after the series between the final pair on Sunday.

The teams are competing in equally matched event-provided Elliott 6m keelboats - the same boats that will be used in the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition in Weymouth, England.

For more information, please visit
www.WIMRA.org or www.deltalloydregatta.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This press release was prepared by the Women’s International Match Racing Association (WIMRA). WIMRA can be found at www.WIMRA.org, www.Facebook.com/WIMRA, www.twitter.com/WIMRA, and www.youtube.com/user/WIMRAMatchRace

Contact the WIMRA Press Office at PressOffice (at) wimra.org

# # #

The Women's International Match Racing Association was formed in 1996 to promote, coordinate and supervise women's international match-race sailing and support the inclusion of a Women's Match-Racing Event in the Olympic Games.