LeRoy beats the boys

A report from this weekend's round of the JPMorgan Asset Management Winter Challenge match racing

The fifth JPMorgan Asset Management Winter Challenge match racing qualifier took place this weekend at Queen Mary Sailing Club, Staines.

The British have won all the qualifiers to date but this weekend the five overseas teams from France, Germany and Finland saw off the Brits in the round robin and secured all the places in the semi final. Claire Leroy’s all-women team from France, the leader on the world women’s match race rankings, topped the round robin. Jon Eriksson from Finland was next with Christian Ponthieu from France and Sven Erik Horsch from Germany third and fourth in the round robin.

They were followed by Robbie Allam, Ed Hill, Antti Luhta and David Tabb who all had three wins each. Ed Hill went on to take the fifth/ sixth place sail off against David Tabb.

The final day of racing became very close. The wind had increased to almost 20 knots so the action was fast and furious. Both French teams were hoping to reach the final but Finland’s Eriksson had a different plan; however he had to take his battle against Ponthieu to a third match before he secured his place in the final. Germany’s Horsch tried hard against Claire Leroy but a foul in the second match at the start resulted in a black flag handing the other place in the final to the French girls. The girls had still not lost a match during the weekend.

Claire Leroy sailing with Marie Riou, Elodie Bertrand, Ingrid Cerrato, Ophelie Thenon had a shock in the first race of the final losing the match in the stronger winds to Jon Eriksson with Jan Mattsson, Kenneth Nysten, Kenneth Blomster. However she started sailing more defensively and used her match racing skills to go on to win the next two matches to secure her place in the final of the JPMorgan Asset Management Winter Challenge on 9-11 March.

Leroy will also be back again in a month’s time for the Women’s final where she will be against the Women’s number two and three in the World Match Race Rankings. However the next weekend on 9-11 February has attracted the best in the Men’s World Match Race Rankings with seven teams attending from the top 25 of the rankings including Mathieu Richard and Ian Williams.

Final Results
1. Claire Leroy (FRA), Marie Riou, Elodie Bertrand, Ingrid Cerrato, Ophelie Thenon
2. Jon Eriksson (FIN), Jan Mattsson, Kenneth Nysten, Kenneth Blomster
3. Christian Ponthieu (FRA), Olivier Camebourg, Olivier Cardin, David DeLarue
4. Sven Erik Horsch (GER), Mirko Masek, Ole von Studnitz, Alexander Nibbe
5. Ed Hill (GBR), Christian Hamilton, Jeremy Fowke, Tom Odell
6. David Tabb (GBR), James Cole, Rob Kemp, Jason Foster
7. Robbie Allam (GBR), Adam Richards, Pete Allam, Matt Pinner
8. Antti Luhta (FIN) Kim Kurenmaa, Johan Neuvius, Timo Soini
9. Andrew Shaw (GBR) Jo Brigg, Dan Schieber, Tom Hodkinson, Nick Blevins

Future Events
Qualifier 6 (9-11 Feb)
Women’s Final (23-25 Feb)
Final (9-11 March)

The Winter Challenge Series is part of JPMorgan Asset Management’s commitment to world-class sailing in the UK. In addition to extending its title sponsorship of the Round the Island Race to 2010, the company are now sponsors of Ben Ainslie and Shirley Robertson, Britain’s two double Olympic gold medallists