Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) and Ian Williams (GBR) have retained their place at the top of the Women’s and Open Match Racing Rankings. Update Wednesday 8 February 2012
Open Rankings
The top 25 rankings places remain unchanged since the last release with World Match Racing Tour Champion Ian Williams remaining well in front ahead of Francesco Bruni (ITA) and Jesper Radich (DEN). But down the rankings there has been some movement with December Match Race winner Daniel Maestre (ESP) moving from World #205 to a personal best of World #120. The Spaniard overcame Arpad Litkey (HUN) in the final to claim his first ISAF Grade 3 Match Racing title. Despite the loss the Hungarian has moved to #87, his best ranking position to date. Josh Junior (NZL) won the ISAF Grade 3 Warren Jones International Youth Regatta. The former World #40 has currently been campaigning in the Laser and finished 37th at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and missed out on a London 2012 spot with Andrew Murdoch (NZL) taking the Kiwi spot. Nonetheless Junior is back on the match racing scene and his victory in Perth, Australia has moved him from World #252 to #141. Second to Junior in Perth was David Gilmour who has fallen from #49 to #57.
Women’s Rankings
It was do a die for nine teams at the Grade 1 Women’s Match Racing International Country Olympic Qualifying Regatta in Miami, USA. Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen (DEN), Silja Lehtinen (FIN) and Tamara Echegoyen (ESP) did what they needed to do to qualify their country, but at the same time all three improved their ranking position. Lehtinen took the regatta convincingly defeating Echegoyen 3-0 in the final; the win moved the Finnish sailor up to #6 jumping ahead of Echegoyen who is now one place behind her. Former World #1 Pedersen defeated Martina Silva (ARG) 3-2 in the Petit Final to seal Denmark’s spot at London 2012. The narrow victory was sealed in the final flight after Silva fought back from 2-0 down. Pedersen’s third place has moved her up to World #23. Before the qualifying regatta teams had a chance to hone in their skills and gain ISAF Sailing World Cup points at US SAILING’s Rolex Miami OCR, the second of seven World Cup Regattas. Lucy Macgregor (GBR) took the regatta win to close the gap on Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) at the top of the Rankings to just 27 points. Runner up Olivia Price (AUS) continues her steady climb up the rankings and is now World #13 and closing in on a top ten spot
