Line 7 Match Racing Spithill Still Leads

by Line 7 Media centre on 2 Sep 2000 Friday's racing commenced under cloudless skies with a light to moderate northwesterly breeze providing some good sailing
conditions. Group B completed the second of their Round Robins this morning, with 3 flights sailed. Leader of the group, Katie
Spithill, suffered an early defeat but recovered to complete both her rounds with 9 wins from her 10 races. Carla Holgate from
New Zealand improved on her first round performance to record 4 wins from 5 in round robin 2, to boost her overall score for the
two rounds to 6 wins. Courtney Lawrence (Perth, Western Australia) continued her consistent sailing today to finish up with 7
wins from 10. Laura Dillon (IRE) chalked up 4 wins, with Australians Jacqueline Ellis (3) and Ailie McKendrick (1) rounding out
the group's results.

The other group hit the water in the afternoon, albeit after a wait for new breeze to fill in. New Zealand's top-ranked female match
racer, Sharon Ferris, completed a clean sweep of her group today, with her nearest rival, compatriot and NZL National Champ,
Amy Waring, on 8 wins. Abby Seager from Great Britain, despite losing a crewmember overboard in the last match of the round
and being unable to finish due to injury to the crewmember, finished the rounds with 5 wins, and was followed by Jude Dorling
(NZL) with 3 wins and Hikari Sano (JPN) and Pamela Dickson (AUS) on 2 wins each.

The event now moves to its next stage, the super round robin, which will be fought out by the top three finishers from each pool. Close, tight match racing is in store and the weather forecast looks promising.