Nicky Souter and crew (AUS) gain the Bronze medal. Image copyright Fried Elliott/www.friedbits.com
by Craig Heydon
Australian sailors Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis, Olivia Price and Laura Baldwin have won the Bronze medal at the 2010 ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship in Rhode Island, USA.
The Bronze medal playoff was the battle of the former World Champions with the Australian’s defeating the French crew led by Claire Leroy two wins to one to claim the final place on the podium.
“The petite final against the French went right down to the wire,” said skipper Souter. “Leroy won the first race and we fought back well to win the next two. All our semi and petite final races were close with the lead changing in every race, the level of competition was extremely high this year, and we’re pretty happy with our overall result.”
Souter and crew had an uphill battle on their hands from the first race of the day, beginning the final day of racing trailing American Sally Barkow two wins to nil in the first to three wins semifinal.
“We had a tough morning against Sally Barkow,” said Souter. “We had to win the opening race of the day for a chance at the finals, it was a great race with the lead changing three or four times and she managed to roll us just on the finish line, another photo finish, we seemed to have a few of those this week.”
The Bronze medal for the Australian crew made it three trips to the podium in as many events, following victory at the final round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in Weymouth in August and a Gold medal at the recent Buddy Melges Challenge in Wisconsin.
Fellow Australians Katie Spithill, Jessica Eastwell, Angela Farrell and Stacey Jackson finished the regatta eighth after a hard fought fifth to eighth place playoff.
Australian Sailing Team
Women's Match Racing Worlds
