French Sailing Federation: News

On 2022-11-13

There is no doubt that they are dueling queens! This week, at the legendary Auckland Aquarium in New Zealand, the French women’s ‘match in pink for the Normandie Elite’ led by world number one Pauline Courtois retained their title of world champions in match racing. They got it last year at home, in Normandy, near Cherbourg.

A few weeks after winning the European Championships in the discipline, the French ladies achieved an impressive treble with their final victory in the Women’s World Championship, the Women’s World Cup in 4 stages. Another exceptional season for Pauline Courtois, Moulin Lemaitre, Louise Acker, Tia Khalif and Clara Baiul, who have given themselves a prestigious coronation within the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, the defending America’s Cup club!

14 crews were in contention this week in New Zealand, aboard the Elliot 7m made available by the organizing club, and behind world number one Pauline Courtois, a crowd of very serious contenders for final victory, including Swedes Anna Oestling and Jonah Bergqvist. , American Nicole Breault, but also New Zealanders Celia Willison and Megan Thompson, are at home, as are the other two French captains in the race: Margot Rieu and Margot Finnin. An extraordinary field and inevitable duels at the top during these four days of competition, contested in variable and challenging conditions, between fog and storm, sun and rain with Auckland’s emblematic Harbor Bridge in the background.

After a particularly tight round robin, three teams shared the best record, at 11 wins – 2 losses: the talented crew led by Celia Willison and the experienced Ostling and Courtois. Match in Pink then chose to face Australian Juliette Constanzo in the quarter-finals. After a great adventure and a change of boat, because the one who was drawn had a problem with the mainsail, the French won 3-0 and found Sweden’s Anna Oestling, who was a regular on the Match-Racing circuit, in the semi-finals. A long-awaited duel that necessarily did not disappoint. After 3 tough matches, the French women got out of it, two matches to one, and advanced to the final against New Zealander Celia Willison, whom she had already met at the same stage of the competition last week during the New Zealand national championship. .

Like the previous weekend, Pauline Courtois gave her opponent no chance, winning 2-0 to retain the world champion title, which she won for the first time in her career last year, in Cherbourg. This final victory comes above all to crown the Match in Pink Normandy Elite girls on the women’s circuit, following their European title a few weeks ago, as well as winning the Match Racing World Cup, the women’s world match racing tour!

Pauline Courtois (Brazil – World Match Racing Champion 2022):We made it! Over these 4 days we had really tough conditions. We back up what they say about New Zealand: there are 4 seasons in a day! We started the competition with a perfect day and an 8/8 Round Robin in windy conditions. 2^H Today, it is still very windy and 2 wins for 1 loss. The next day, a lot of waiting to start, with a wind that takes time to establish itself properly. We lose an important game that could have allowed us to win the round robin. We continue to dread a bit before the quarter-finals: we have to go back to the port to change boats and rig up at the last moment before the duel begins. We somehow made it into the match and won 3-0. The last day, finally, was particularly tough, with a very close semi-final match against Anna Oestling. In the final, we present ourselves with a remake of last weekend’s final, at the New Zealand National Championships, against Celia Willison and win again. We are bringing home the trophy and we are very proud of it! Many thanks to the Royal New Zealand Yachting Squadron for organizing such a great event and of course a nice idea to our instructor Cedric Chateau, who followed him from his class of 40 in the mid-Atlantic! »

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