The Final Battle for Olympic Country Qualification in Women’s Match Racing

The final battle for Olympic country qualification in Women’s Match Racing will take place the first week of February on Biscayne Bay in Florida, USA. Teams from nine countries will compete to qualify their country for one of the three final spots.
By: WIMRA Press Office
 
Jan. 14, 2012 - PRLog -- The final battle for Olympic country qualification in Women’s match racing is coming up.

The 2011 Women’s Match World Championship qualified 8 countries to send a team to the Olympics. Those countries are (Australia, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Russia and USA). GBR, as host country, is also given a berth. That leaves 3 open slots.

To qualify those final 3 countries, Sail Sheboygan, WIMRA and Key Biscayne Yacht Club will run the Women’s Match Race Country Qualifier. Feb 2-5 will see teams from nine countries come together to compete to qualify their country for one of those final spots. The countries still vying to qualify are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Spain and Slovenia. 7 of the 9 countries have already nominated a skipper, while Canada and Brazil will use the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta to determine their skipper.

Representing their countries will be:

Argentina – Martina Silva, ranked 29th in the latest ISAF rankings
Brazil – Either Renata Decnop, who finished 17th overall at the Perth Worlds, or Juliana Senfft, who is ISAF ranked 16th in the world.
Canada – Sharon Ferris-Choat, currently ranked #36 by ISAF or Jinnie Gordon
China - Ru Wang, currently ranked #32, and finished 21st in Perth
Denmark – Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen, a veteran on the women’s match race circuit, finishing 16th in Perth, and currently ranked #30 by ISAF
Finland – Silja Lehtinen, 14th in Perth, and ranked #9 by ISAF
Germany – Silke Hahlbrock, ranked #20 by ISAF and finished 18th in Perth
Spain – Tamara Echegoyan, finished 12th in Perth (9th country overall), ranked by ISAF at #8
Slovenia – Vesna Dekleva Paoli, ranked #24 by ISAF, finishing 19th in Perth

The race format will be a single round robin(everyone races each other once), cutting the 9 to 6. Any ties for the cutoff will be determined by sail-offs on the water to make sure the tie breaks are made by racing. After the cut, there will be a double round robin (skippers race each other twice), to narrow the field to the final 4.

The final 4 will then race in a knock-out series to determine the final four places, the 3 countries who will qualify, and the first alternate.

The qualifier promises to deliver spectacular racing. Most of the teams will have just come off 7 days of racing in the Rolex Miami Olympic Classes Regatta, so they will be at the top of their game and familiar with the boats and the waters.

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.sailsheboygan.org

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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

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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.
End
Source:WIMRA Press Office
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Tags:Sailiing, Women, Match Racing, Olympics, Wimra
Industry:Sailing, Olympics, Sports
Location:United States
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