Local favorites for Women’s Match Racing Worlds

Anna Östling and her Team Wings are the second highest ranked team on the international match racing ranking. The Swedish home team are one of the favourites to win the World Championship in match racing on August 6-10 in Lysekil, Sweden.

”It will definitely be one of the biggest competitions for us in the team so far,” says Östling.

Lysekil Women’s Match is the official Women’s Match Racing World Championship of 2019. Anna Östling has been a leading profile in the sport for over a decade, sailing the Olympics in 2012 and winning the World Championship title in both 2014 and 2016. To win another gold in the home event in Lysekil would be a true career highlight.

”It has been our goal since it became official last year that the World Championship would be sailed in Lysekil,” says Östling. “We have done a lot of sailing this year and the focus has always been on sailing as well as possible next week.”

Team Wings – Annie Wennergren, Anna Östling, Annika Carlunger, Marie Berg, Linnéa Wennergren.

This summer they have sailed the Midsummer Match Cup in Skärhamn, won the GKSS Match Cup Sweden at Marstrand and warmed up ahead of Lysekil with a competition in France in the end of July. The team has consistently been ranked as one of the best in the world the last decade but Östling wants to tone down herself as a favorite.

”We always want to be at the top of the podium but we feel that many teams want exactly the same thing and the competition will be really tough. The regatta in France became an eye opener for us because we discovered we have troubles with certain parts of the sailing after having focused harder on other parts of our crew work.”

Specifically, the team has trained a lot on sailing with gennaker to be prepared for sailing the Fareast 28 used in Lysekil.

”To get all the way to the final, you will need determination and quick thinking in all situations when the competition is this good. But we feel confident and we have been in similar situations before where there is a lot at stake,” says Östling, stressing that the winning recipe is about feeling the joy on board.

”We feel no pressure but think more about enjoying each race and just go out to sea and give it our best. We love to sail, we love to compete and we love to win!”

Entry list (Skipper, ranking, nationality):
Pauline Courtois, 1, (FRA)
Trine Palludan, 2, (DEN)
Anna Östling, 3, (SWE)
Johanna Bergqvist, 4, (SWE)
Marinella Laaksonen, 5, (FIN)
Nicole Breault, 6, (USA)
Margot Vennin, 7, (FRA)
Alexa Bezel, 8, (SUI)
Lucy Macgregor, 10, (GBR) – Defending World Champion
Renée Groeneveld, 13, (NED)
Claire Leroy, 15, (FRA)
Marie Björling, 36, (SWE)

WIM Series – Event details – Results – Facebook

Background:
The Women’s International Match Racing Association (WIMRA) was formed in 1996 and is an international association of women sailors whose mission is to expand and strengthen global match racing and promote opportunities for competitive women’s sailing at every level.

WIMRA created the first and only professional sailing series for women in 2013 – the Women’s International Match Racing Series (WIM Series). The WIM Series delivers a global circuit of competition to test the world’s best sailors in a format of round robin and knock-out matches.

2019 WIM Series Schedule:
June 6-9 – Normandie Match Cup 2019 – Le Havre, France
August 6-10 – Women’s Match Racing World Championship (Lysekil Women’s Match) – Lysekil, Sweden
October 11-16 – China International Women’s Match Race – Shanghai, China

Source: WIM Series