Souter vs Spithill in the quarterfinals. Image copyright Fried Elliott/www.friedbits.com
by Craig Heydon
Australians Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis, Olivia Price and Laura Baldwin have a fight on their hands to progress to the final of the 2010 ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship.
The Australian Women’s Match Racing Team crew is currently trailing two wins to nil against American Sally Barkow in the first to three wins semifinal with racing to resume on Saturday morning.
“The semifinal isn’t going as well as we would have hoped at the moment but tomorrow is a new day and we now have to go out and win the next three races to make the finals,” said Souter. “We’ve done it before so we know we can do it again.”
Souter and crew won their way through to the semifinals after claiming victory in the all-Australian quarterfinal on Friday morning.
Held at the New York Yacht Club in Rhode Island, USA, defending World Champion Souter and crew defeated fellow Australians Katie Spithill, Jessica Eastwell, Angela Farrell and Stacey Jackson three-nil in the quarterfinal, the first time the two Australian crews had met each other in the knockout round this year.
“We had some really good racing against Katie in the quarterfinals this morning,” said Souter. “The three races were pretty close, and all exciting races as they always are against her team.”
“It was a challenging day out there in Newport today, totally different to any other day we’ve had, actually all days have been totally different,” she said “Today was very shifty with so much low cloud around quite often you couldn't see the top mark, but the forecast for tomorrow is for the low cloud to pass by and have a bit more breeze.”
Following their quarterfinal loss Spithill and crew are now locked in a tight battle in the fifth to eighth round robin.
Australian Sailing Team
Women's Match Racing Worlds
