Day 7 Women’s Match Racing Group B: France and Netherlands secure Olympic berths
But it took some time for the race committee to decide the final placings for Group B, as three crews tied for first on points with 10 wins and three losses after day seven’s contests.
The Olympic berths were probably a moot point, as one of the trio was a Great Britain boat, which as the host nation, had already qualified for the elite 12-team competition.
The fact that world champion Lucy Macgregor (GBR) was in the group meant the other two qualified, but what was interesting was that Macgregor finished third on count-back.
France’s Claire Leroy and the Netherlands’ Mandy Mulder finished one-two after a slow start to the day because of a lack of wind in the morning and the Fremantle Doctor not delivering its normal potency in the late afternoon.
Leroy and Mulder join Group A winner Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) and runner-up Ekaterina Skudina from Russia as London qualifiers and automatic advancement to the quarter-finals.
Leroy was romping home as the group winner until the final two flights when she came unstuck.
By losing to the Netherlands’ Renee Groeneveld in the penultimate round, the competition was set for a nail-biting final flight.
Macgregor was upset by Brazil’s Juliana Siqueira Senfft, meaning Macgregor needed to beat Leroy in the final flight to also finish with 10 points.
Macgregor completed the task as Leroy picked up a penalty at the start line and trailed Macgregor all the way, trying unsuccessfully to pressure her into a penalty of her own.
Mulder lost to Leroy in the 47th flight but went on to win her final three races and throw her name into the mix for the top two, which she achieved for her 10 points.
Sitting patiently on the sidelines after completing her flights earlier in the afternoon, was Australian Olivia Price with nine wins and four losses, top of the group at the time.
However, she slowly saw her position eroded as the top three swamped her and Groeneveld and Spain’s Silvia Roca equalised her.
Price put a bold face on the situation: “We’re really happy with our performance in the first round-robin competition. We had some unfortunate losses on our third day of competition.”
With the bottom four in the group dropping out and the top two advancing to the quarters, the middle eight crews now enter the repechage, while the top four go through a four-race series to determine seedings for the quarter-finals.