Le Berre (FRA) and Goncalves (POR) lead after first day of Match Racing

Anne-Claire Le Berre’s and Rita Goncalves’ teams are at the top of the table after the first day of Women’s Match Racing at Open Europeans in Helsinki, Finland. Both Le Berre’s (FRA) and Rita Goncalves’ (POR) teams won all of their five matches on Thursday.

Defending champion, Russia’s Ekaterina Skudina holds the third spot with six wins. Skudina’s team lost twice, against Goncalves and Silvia Roca Mata of Spain.

Finnish Silja Lehtinen and her team of Silja Kanerva and Mikaela Wulff didn’t have their best day. The local favourites ended the day with a win-loss record of 3-5.

At one point during the day the wind shifted and increased, which forced the organizers to alter the race course. As a result, flight 8 had to be postponed, but the racing was resumed after a short break.

Match Racing’s Round Robin continues on Friday at 10 a.m. with Flights 14–22. The new European Champions will be crowned after Sunday’s medal race, which is held at 12 o’clock at Hernesaari.

Results through 13 flights:
Le Berre - FRA : 5-0
Goncalves - POR : 5-0
Skudina - RUS : 6-2
Mulder - NED : 5-3
Price - AUS : 4-4
Roca - ESP : 4-4
Wang - CHN : 2-3
Echegoyen - ESP : 2-3
Lehtinen - FIN : 3-5
Bekkering - NED : 2-6
Meldgaard - DEN : 1-4
Pomerants - EST : 0-5

Please see the complete results grid here: Euro2011-RR-Results1.pdf