by Soili Hirvonen
Round robin stage of Women's Match Racing was completed on Friday at the European Championships in Helsinki, Finland.
Ekaterina Skudina's team (RUS) advanced to the quarterfinal's with the best record, 9 wins out of 11 matches. Anne-Claire Le Berre's team (FRA) also won 9, losing only to Skudina and China's Wang Ru.
Mandi Mulder of The Netherlands and Rita Goncalves of Portugal shared the third spot. Both teams won 8 starts out of 11.
Among the qualifiers was local Silja Lehtinen (FIN) alongside her team, Silja Kanerva and Mikael Wulff. They grabbed the 8th spot with a win-loss record of 4-7.
In the afternoon the weather in Helsinki became very muggy and humid. After flight 21 the racing was stopped for half an hour. When the break was over, the match racers were able to finish their round robin series smoothly in a reasonable breeze with no rainfall.
The quarter-finals at Hernesaari start today with four flights and continue on Saturday. The pairings are as follow:
Silja Lehtinen (FIN) vs. Tamara Echegoyen (ESP)
Olivia Price (AUS) vs. Mandi Mulder (NED)
Rita Goncalves (POR) vs. Ekaterina Skudina (RUS)
Silvia Roca Mata (ESP) vs. Anne-Claire Le Berre (FRA)
After the four sailed flights in quarter-finals, Lehtinen and Echegoyen have won one race each and Mulder, Skudina and Le Berre two races. Women’s Match Racing will continue on Saturday at 10 o’clock local time. With three wins in quarter-finals, teams are continuing to the next stage.
On Saturday Star-class starts its own competition in Open Europeans 2011
