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Ten elite female crews are racing in Elliott 6m boats that will be used in the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition. The inclusion of women's match racing to the Olympic Sailing Competition has increased the profile of the women's discipline of match racing and the ISAF World Match Racing Tour has welcomed paralleling the men's racing with the women for Stage 5, halfway point of the 2010 Tour.

A surprise scenario developed for the women's semi- final. The young 23 year old currently sitting at top of the official ISAF world rankings, Lucy Macgregor (GBR), was knocked out by Renee Groeneveld (NED) who sits 12 positions below Macgregor in the rankings. The 23 year old Dutch sailor was then joined in the final by European Women's Champion, Ekaterina Skudina (RUS), who successfully defeated, Katie Pellew née Spithill.

Stena Match Cup Sweden became one of the earliest match racing events to establish a women's class back in 1999 and as a result Sweden has grown a strong national following for this ladies sport. The crowds lining the rocks watched a sunlit, emotional final where Skudina down two points took her situation square on and drove Groenenveld into a miscalculated premature start taking the final score to a nail biting 3-2.

The Russian beauty fought off Groenenveld to be Queen of '2010 Women's Stena Match Cup Sweden'. This comes as a blow to Groenenveld who also missed out closely on Olympic qualification for Beijing 2008 in the Yngling class which her adversaries then went on to win silver in.

The World Match Racing Tour's men's racing is also heating up after Jesper Radich (DEN) Radich Racing Team took top pickings going into the semi finals. In preparation for the last day of Stena Match Cup Sweden Radich's crew, Rasmus Köstner, was on site for the pick. Radich now faces Sweden's favourite, Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Sigma Racing Team. "We decided to make it as hard as we could for ourselves and pick Magnus, we are going to be the under dogs but we hope to get something out of it".

Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN will meet Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team who has also built up a strong Swedish fan base here. Mirsky sees Ainslie as 'God of sailing who summons his own wind to his boat'. An upbeat Mirsky went on to say that his team are going to, "Push him and hopefully break him tomorrow".

The remaining four racers are all pinning their hopes on being 'Maestro of Marstrand' to be decided during the final 'boat on boat' racing to Stage 5 of the 2010 ISAF World Match Racing Tour.


For further media information visit: www.wmrt.com

Women's Stena Match Cup Sweden Winners

1st Ekaterina Skudina (RUS)
2nd Renee Groenenveld (NED)
3rd Lucy Macgregor (GBR)

Semi Final Pairings

Jesper Radich (DEN) Rudy Project Sailing Team v Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Sigma Racing Team

Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team v Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN

2010 ISAF World Match Racing Tour Standings
(After Stage 4 of 10)

1 Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 71 Points
2 Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing 54 Points
3 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 48 Points
4 Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 43 Points
5 Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar 42 Points
6 Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra 33 Points
7 Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN 20 Points
- Jesper Radich (DEN) Radich Racing Team 20 Points
9 Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Italia 16 Points
10 Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Global Team 15 Points

Additional information on the ISAF World Match Racing Tour available at www.wmrt.com