Qualifying nearly complete at ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final

Vladivostok, Russia (July 17, 2015) – The third day of the 2015 ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final lasted until sunset with match racing sandwiched between a four hour delay due to the drop in wind conditions.

Despite the wait, the Women’s division second round-robin was completed with Singapore’s Jovina Choo and USA’s Nicole Breault tied on six points. Breault took the first round-robin with a 100% record, with Choo replying with her own perfect score in the second. Both are followed closely behind by France’s Pauline Courtois.

French crew member Juliette Le Friec said, “We had two difficult matches today with Singapore and USA. We lost to Jovina [of Singapore] as I fell down into the water. The match with Nicole Breault [USA] was very hard. We had a lot of gybing, but we managed to win that race because the USA got a penalty.”

In the Open division the aggression was evident with contact and damage from the very first flight. Australia’s Evan Walker managed to get the better of Vladimir Lypayskiy to inflict the Russians first loss of the regatta.

The writing was on the wall for Lypayskiy in his match with Walker when he picked up two flags at the prestart. With a penalty for failing to keep clear of the leeward boat, followed by another for not keeping clear of the starboard boat, it left the Russian with a mountain to climb to hold on to his perfect record.

That Walker win means that both sailors top the Open division with only one loss a piece from both round-robins.

Walker said, “Races were a little bit later than yesterday. We had all three very close races. We started behind the Americans after making a bit of mistake and I got out of control but closed them back and passed them on the run.

“And the last race against the British was a really close one. They passed us on the first run and we managed to pass them on the second one.”

Lying behind the dueling leaders are the teams of France and USA.

Racing continues tomorrow with the completion of the second round-robin of the Open division and the third round-robin for Women before the highest ranked teams proceed to the semi-finals and finals.

Background: The eighth edition of the ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final match racing championship on July 15-19 is using the Platu 25. The schedule for the first three days has a double round-robin planned for the nine teams in the Open Division, with a multi-round robin for the five Women’s teams. The teams that progress from the round-robin qualification will contest the semi-finals and finals on the final two days.

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