Match racing win for Tunnicliffe

Qingdao gold medallist takes US Women's Match Racing title

Recent Olympic gold medalist Anna Tunnicliffe (now Tunnicliffe-Funk) has added another major title to her impressive sailing resume after winning the U.S. Women's Match Racing Championship on Sunday at Rochester Yacht Club (N.Y.). Sailed in Sonars and sponsored by Rolex Watch U.S.A. and Dry Creek Vineyard, Tunnicliffe-Funk - who sailed with Liz Bower, Molly O'Bryan Vandemoer, and Ali Sharp - beat a very strong fleet filled with the country's top female match racing sailors.

Tunnicliffe-Funk has been dominating the world in the singlehanded Laser Radial fleet in recent years (she is currently ranked the world's number 1 by ISAF) and by winning the U.S. Women's Match Racing Championship, she demonstrates that she is a force to be reckoned with in various types of sailboat racing (she also was part of the U.S. Team Racing Championship winning team in 2005).

It was just a little less than 4 weeks ago when Tunnicliffe-Funk stood on the Olympic podium to receive the gold medal. About what it was like for her to race back stateside again, she said, "Coming off the Olympics it was hard to get too excited but really, it was fun, it got my adrenaline going again." After receiving US Sailing's Allegra Knapp Mertz Trophy at the awards ceremony on Sunday evening, she left to prepare for her trip to Europe for another regatta later this week.

While Tunnicliffe-Funk's resume might have made it look easy to win this U.S. National Championship, it was far from that. On the final day of racing, she beat three-time runner-up Katy Pilley-Lovell in the quarterfinals, then went on to beat Liz Baylis in the semi-finals. Tunnicliffe-Funk drew a foul against Baylis, the world's number fifth-ranked women's match racing sailor, during the first match of the semi-finals, but was able to clear herself on the second upwind and still win. In the second match of the semi-finals, the boats were close and Baylis was able to hold Tunnicliffe-Funk out 100 yards past the starboard layline on both port and starboard tacks. Baylis won this match but Tunnicliffe-Funk won the third to advance to the finals. In the finals, she won both matches against Genny Tulloch who won the Adams Memorial Trophy for finishing second.

For complete more info and photos from the event, visit www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/women/uswmrc