Pellew Wins Livesport Telecom New Zealand Women's Match Racing Championship

March 9, 2010:  NEW ZEALAND - - Last Sunday, Australian Katie Pellew (nee Spithill) won the one and only race in the finals against rival and fellow Australian Nicky Souter to win the Livesport Telecom New Zealand Women's Match Racing Championships.

The Race Committee was unable to complete any further races in the final series in the allocated time.  In the petit-final between the top two Kiwi teams Samantha Osborne beat Stephanie Hazard by 46 seconds to claim 3rd place overall.

Earlier in the semi-finals, Souter chose to sail Hazard and this left Pellew to race Osborne.  Souter won the first, Hazard won the second and Souter the third to take her sot in the semi-finals.  Pellew beat Osborne two races to nil, to joine her Australian counterpart.

The racing began on time at 0930 and the Race Committee had four flights of Round Robin Two to complete before they could move into Semi-Finals and Finals.  They achieved this just before 1400, so it meant a reduced final series was required.

Souter beat Pellew in flight nine to take a one point advantage and finish top of the table with 17 wins overall and Pellew second with 16 wins.  But, Osborne was the big mover in the morning adding wins over Hazard, Winther and Lehtinen to take her score to 13 points overall, but falling short of Hazard with 14 points; still she earned enough to make the top four.

Lehtinen missed out on the top four by three points, after losses to Souter, Pellew and Osborne and she finished with 10 points overall.  In sixth place overall was Takapuna sailor Sara Winther; not normally a match racer, Winther had some great races ending the regatta with 7 points overall.

Next overall, and the first of the youth teams, was 19 year old Danielle Bowater, in her first match racing regatta.  Bowater just beat her rival and fellow RNZYS Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme teammate, Katie de Lange, who placed eights overall.

The youngest skipper in the competition at just 16 years of age, Anita Trudgen, representing the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club in Wellington ended with 3 wins and nineth place overall.  Lastly,, American Kim Stuart and her team from Santa Monica had a tough regatta with the tide and range of wind conditions and finished in 10th place overall.

All the competitors commented at prizegiving about the fantastic Race Management and Umpiring during the week and how much fun they had sailing against each other in the Elliott 6's.  At the close of the regatta, most of the teams left for Australia to compete in the Harken Women's Match Racing Regatta held by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.