2012 Women’s Match Racing International Country Olympic Qualifying Regatta

Jan. 31, 2012 - PRLog -- The Final Battle for Olympic Country Qualification in Women’s Match Racing

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) and they will join GBR (host country) at the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition. Three slots remain and they will be decided in Key Biscayne this week.

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, Slovenia, and Spain. They have each sent one team to compete.

Representing their countries will be:
ARGENTINA - Martina Silva, Ana Lucía Silva, María Trinidad Silva (ISAF Ranking = 29)
BRAZIL - Renata Decnop, Gabriela Nicolino, Larissa Juk (21)
CANADA - Sharon Ferris-Choat, Caroline Kaars Sijpesteijn , Joanne Prokop (36)
CHINA - Ru Wang, Li Xiaoni, Pan Ting Ting (32)
DENMARK - Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen, Susanne Boidin, Tina Schmidt Gramkov (30)
FINLAND - Silja Lehtinen, Mikaela Wulff, Silja Kanerva (9)
GERMANY - Silke Hahlbrock, Anke Lukosch, Maren Hahlbrock (20)
SLOVENIA - Vesna Dekleva Paoli, Katarina Kersevan, Lena Koter (24)
SPAIN - Tamara Echegoyen, Angela Pumariega, Sofía Toro (8)

The race format will be a single round robin (everyone races each other once), cutting the 9 to 6. 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 have just come off 7 days of racing in the Rolex Miami OCR, so they will be at the top of their game and familiar with the boats and the waters.

For more information: Event website: http://www.sailsheboygan.org/WMR-2012.php

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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.