Monster purse

43,000 Euros to be won in August's Lysekil Women’s Match in Sweden

All the top names from the World Championships in Women’s Match Racing in Denmark last week will participate in Lysekil Women’s Match, August 1-6. The reigning world champion Dorte Jensen from Denmark and the Swedish silver and bronze medallists Marie Björling and Linda Rahm are given competitors during the biggest match racing event in Sweden, in Lysekil the first week of August. Some of the greatest skippers outside Scandinavia have also confirmed their attendance.

The success among the Scandinavians was clear during the Women’s Match Racing World Championship last week. Dorte Jensen from Denmark won the finals with narrow margins against Swedish Marie Björling. Björling, who won the latest issue of Lysekil Women’s Match 2004, will give it all to repeat her performance and beat her Danish rival in home waters.
 
French Claire Leroy, number one in the world ranking of match racing, took eighth place in the World Championships, which indicates how close the racing is at the top. The margins were very small between first and eighth place and Leroy will seek revenge at the Swedish west coast in the beginning of August.

More world class skippers will fight for top position during Lysekil Women’s Match, hosted by the oil company Preem Petroleum, where the world’s biggest prize money in women’s match racing is promised - 400 000 SEK (43 000 Euro) of prize money, 100 000 SEK (10 600 Euro) to the winner. 12 of the world’s best match racing women are invited. Nine are confirmed so far:

Claire Leroy (1)  FRA - Ranked nº 1 for more than a year, 2nd in Lysekil Women’s Match 2004
Marie Björling (2) SWE - Silver medallist World Championships, 4 times World Championships silver medallist, won Swedish Match Cup three years in a row (2002-2204) won Lysekil Women’s Match 2004
Klaartje Zuiderbaan (5) NED - Fifth World Championships, Holland’s great star of match racing
Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen (9) DEN - Gold medallist European Championships 2003 and silver medallist World Championships 2003, 4th World Championships 2006
Linda Rahm (10) SWE - Bronze medallist World Championships, won first Round Robin in Lysekil Women’s Match 2004
Malin Millbourn (14) SWE - Gold medallist World Championships 2003, won Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand 2005
Josephine Gibson (16) GBR - Young, new rising star from the UK, a solid dinghy sailing background
Jessica Smyth (19) NZL - One of New Zealand’s big names in match racing, will race all summer in Europe
Dorte O. Jensen (x) DEN - Reigning World Champion, holds four world titles

(The ISAF World Match Race Rankings was latest updated May 3/Jensen was at that time not ranked)

The inauguration of Preem Lysekil Women’s Match for the Stena Bulk Trophy will be on August 1, and the races will take place during August 2-6.

Preem Lysekil Women’s Match for the Stena Bulk Trophy is organised by Sailnet Lysekil AB and Live Göteborg in cooperation with the yacht club Lysekils SS Gullmar (LSSG). Official host of Lysekil Women’s Match is the oil company Preem with main partner Stena Bulk AB and Carpe Diem Beds of Sweden, Midroc Scandinavia and Lysekil Local Authority as partners.