Final Four advance at WIM Series

St Thomas, USVI (December 1, 2018) – After three days of racing at the Carlos Aguilar Match Race (CAMR), there are four teams – Sweden’s Johanna Bergqvist and Anna Östling, the Netherland’s Renee Groeneveld and France’s Pauline Courtois – left at the top of the leaderboard who will vie for the championship title tomorrow in a progression of semi-finals, petite-finals and finals.

As the Women’s International Match Racing Series (WIM Series) Finale, the elimination process started mid-morning, when after 22 flights of the first full round-robin, the top eight teams advanced to the quarter finals and the bottom four sailed a consolation round.

Thus, it was a day of lows for some teams and highs for others, much like a weather where dark rain squalls mid-day cleared to a sunlight afternoon with champagne sailing conditions.

“Yesterday, it was clear we had to improve and to analyze what we needed to do better,” says Groeneveld, defending champion of the 2016 WIM Series Finale at the Carlos Aguilar Match Race, whose Dutch Match Racing Team of Annemieke Bes, Lobke Berkhout, and Mijke Lievens ended the second day of racing in fifth and pulled that up to a semifinals berth today. “Today, we led the start in each of our matches and extended that lead right to the finish. Tomorrow, for the finals, we plan to keep an open mind about the wind shifts and take it match by match.”

The USA’s Janel Zarkowsky’s As One team of Isabelle Ruiz de Luzuriaga, Katie Olsen, and Rose Edwards made the cut into the quarter finals and lost a spot in the semis following a defeat to France’s Courtois.

“This is our first event together as a team and our goal was to get into the top eight, which we did,” says Zarkowsky, who plans to compete in WIM Series events in 2019. “In the quarter finals, we had some spicy racing against Pauline (Courtois). What I really enjoy about match racing in general is the pre-start, and the pre-start against Pauline was intense. We both know the basics and the rules well, so we play off each other really well. We really got our money’s worth in the quarter finals.”

Sweden’s Linnea Floser, whose Peregrine crew includes Hanna Ericksson, Sarah Ragle, and Ann Johnson, were another team that hoped to make it into the quarter finals. While they didn’t make the cut, they did win the four-team consolation round.

“We, my crew Hanna and I, sailed here in 2016 and getting to know the venue and boats was good, but we were new to match racing back then,” said Floser. “This year, just Hanna and I are back and we are sailing with two new crew. One of these, Sarah (Ragle), we have never sailed with before and because she is from the USA we had to remember to speak English not Swedish on the boat. We were really off in our team work at the beginning of the regatta, but we had a good learning curve and today we improved, got back in the game and came out on top of our round.”

Following Floser in ninth in the consolation round is the USA’s Morgan Collins tenth and Sweden’s Sanna Mattsson and Helena Nielsen in eleventh and twelfth, respectively.

Results in the semi-finals (in progress):
Pauline Courtois, FRA – Renée Groeneveld, NED 2 – 0
Johanna Bergqvist, SWE – Anna Östling, SWE 1 – 1

Results in the quarter-finals:
Renée Groeneveld, NED – Margot Riou, FRA 3 – 0
Anna Östling, SWE – Margot Vennin, FRA 3 – 0
Pauline Courtois, FRA – Janel Zarkowsky, USA 3 – 0
Johanna Bergqvist, SWE – Octavia Owen, GBR 3 – 0

Consolation Round Robin:
9. Linnea Floser, Peregrine Racing, SWE, 3-0
10. Morgan Collins, Caribbean Wind Racing, USA, 2-1
11. Sanna Mattsson, Swedish Women’s Match Racing Team, SWE, 1-2
12. Helena Nielsen, Team Nielsen, SWE, 0-3

Standings after Stage One Round Robin:
1. Johanna Bergqvist, Team Bergqvist Match Racing, SWE, 10-1
2. Pauline Courtois, Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team, FRA, 9-2
3. Anna Östling, Team Anna, SWE, 8-3
4. Renée Groeneveld, Dutch Match Racing Team, NED, 8-3
5. Margot Riou, APCC Women Sailing Team , FRA, 7-4
6. Margot Vennin, Matchmoiselles by Normandy Elite Team, FRA, 6-5
7. Octavia Owen, Athena Racing, GBR, 5-6
8. Janel Zarkowsky, As One, USA, 4-7
9. Linnea Floser, Peregrine Racing, SWE, 3-8
10. Morgan Collins, Caribbean Wind Racing, USA, 3-8
11. Helena Nielsen, Team Nielsen, SWE, 2-9
12. Sanna Mattsson, Swedish Women’s Match Racing Team, SWE, 1-10

Racing is scheduled on November 29-December 2.

WIM Series – CAMR details – Results – 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)

2018 WIM Series Results (after 4 of 5 events):
1. Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team, Pauline Courtois – FRA, 87
2. Team Kattnakken, Trine Palludan / Henriette Koch – DEN, 85
3. L2 Match Racing Team, Marinella Laaksonen – FIN, 56
4. Swiss Women Match Racing Team, Alexa Bezel – SUI, 46
5. Mermaid Sailing Team / New Sweden Match Racing Team, Claire Leroy – FRA, 41
6. Team Bergqvist Match Racing, Johanna Bergqvist – SWE, 40
7. Matchmoiselles by Normandy Elite Team, Margot Vennin – FRA, 33
8. Team Mac, Lucy Macgregor – GBR, 25
9. ProKaTeam Sailing Team, Ekaterina Kochkina – RUS, 24
10. Team Sköna Vibbisar, Antonia Degerlund – FIN, 24
11. ChicaCER, Laurane Mettraux – SUI, 22
12. APCC Women Sailing Team, Margot Riou – FRA, 21
13. Team Anna, Anna Östling – SWE, 20
14. Team BAAM!, Allie Blecher – USA, 16
15. Swedish Women’s Match Racing Team, Sanna Mattsson – SWE, 16
16. Stockholm Match Racing Team, Sanna Häger – SWE, 15
17. Women On Water, Henriette Koch – DEN, 14
18. Peregrine Racing, Linnea Floser / Hanna Ericksson – SWE, 13
19. BERGAUF Sailing Team, Milena Laverycheva – RUS, 12
20. NZ Match, Celia Willison – NZL, 12
21. Athena Racing, Octavia Owen – GBR, 11
22. BornToSail, Alexandra Martynova – RUS, 10
23. Team Skogman, Jassi Skogman – FIN, 8
24. Dutch Match Racing Team, Renée Groeneveld – NED, 0
24. Team Nielsen, Helena Nielsen – SWE, 0
24. As One, Janel Zarkowsky – USA, 0
24. Caribbean Wind Racing, Morgan Collins – USA, 0

Source: WIM Series