Quarterfinals begin at WIM Series Lysekil

Lysekil, Sweden (August 9, 2018) – The round-robin at the Lysekil Women’s Match ended in spectacular fashion with the last quarter-final spot not decided until the last flight to advance the eight teams to the knock-out stage for the second event of the Women’s International Match Racing Series.

But while today delivered dazzling sunshine and shifty westerly wind, the wind forecast for tomorrow shows up to 50 knots which prompted the decision to skip the repechage round and move on to quarter-finals with the eight highest ranked crews. The quarter-finals began this afternoon with a best-of-five format.

Henriette Koch (DEN) won the round-robin with ten victories and chose Antonia Degerlund (FIN) as her opponent. Degerlund made it into the quarter finals with the least possible margin through a victory in their last round-robin match against Swiss Bezel, a match in which they were counted out, but fortunes changed.

”You can never give up, if you do, you might as well stay at home. I compare it with a party – if you’re thinking about how to get back home from the party, before it even started, you shouldn’t go,” says Lisa Gerkman, bow, about the win.

However, as the quarter finals started, Koch and her crew sailed as stable as ever and took two wins in a row. If the race committee decides to cut to a best-of-three format due to stormy winds tomorrow, this means Koch is ready for semi-finals to follow.

This goes for Johanna Bergqvist and her crew Team Bergqvist Match Racing as well, who got off to a better start giving them a solid lead in their first match against Claire Leroy, skipper for New Sweden Match Racing Team, holding the lead all the way over the finish line. The second match was much more even but when Leroy’s gennaker went up with an hourglass twist, Bergqvist could easily sail toward a second victory.

“We did a split start when we noticed there was quite a lot of pressure on the right and that we had to go in and face it. We got a small lead which made it easy for us to stick to our strategy,” says Bergqvist.

The winds faded in the evening as Swedish team Anna Östling and French team Pauline Courtois both won their two quarter-final matches and are also in a good position for the semi-finals as they raced in light and shifty breeze.

For Sanna Mattsson (SWE), Octavia Owen (GBR), Ekaterina Kochkina (RUS) and Margot Vennin (FRA), the Lysekil Women’s Match 2018 is over.

Teams are racing the Fareast 28r from August 6 to 11.

Results in the quarter-finals:
Claire Leroy, FRA – Johanna Bergqvist, SWE 0 – 2
Pauline Courtois, FRA – Marinella Laaksonen, FIN 2 – 0
Anna Östling, SWE – Alexa Bezel, SUI 2 – 0
Henriette Koch, DEN – Antonia Degerlund, FIN 2 – 0

Standings after round-robin (skipper, team, nationality, wins – losses):
1. Henriette Koch, Women On Water / Team Kattnakken, DEN, 10-1
2. Anna Östling, Team Anna, SWE, 9-2
3. Pauline Courtois, Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team, FRA, 9-2
4. Claire Leroy, New Sweden Match Racing Team, FRA, 8-3
5. Marinella Laaksonen , L2 Match Racing Team, FIN, 8-3
6. Johanna Bergqvist, Team Bergqvist Match Racing, SWE, 6-5
7. Alexa Bezel, Swiss Women Match Racing Team, SUI, 5-6
8. Antonia Degerlund, Team Sköna Vibbisar, FIN, 3-8
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9. Ekaterina Kochkina, ProKaTeam Sailing Team, RUS, 3-8
10. Margot Vennin, Matchmoiselles by Normandy Elite Team, FRA, 3-8
11. Sanna Mattsson, Swedish Women’s Match Racing Team, SWE, 1-10
12. Octavia Owen, Athena Racing, GBR, 1-10

WIM Series – Event details – Facebook

Background:
The Women’s International Match Racing Association (WIMRA) was formed in 1996 and is an international association of women sailors whose mission is to expand and strengthen global match racing and promote opportunities for competitive women’s sailing at every level.

WIMRA created the first and only professional sailing series for women in 2013 – the Women’s International Match Racing Series (WIM Series). The WIM Series delivers a global circuit of competition to test the world’s best sailors in a format of round robin and knock-out matches.

2018 WIM Series Schedule
June 25-29: Helsinki Women’s Match – Helsinki, Finland (J/80)
August 6-11: Lysekil Women’s Match – Lysekil, Sweden (Fareast 28r)
August 14-18: Women’s Match Racing World Championship – Ekaterinburg, Russia (Ricochet 747)
October 30-November 3: Swiss International Women’s Match – Ascona, Switzerland (J/70)
November 29-Decenber 2: Carlos Aguilar Match Race – St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (IC 24)

Source: WIM Series