LUCY Macgregor insisted the match racing girls would “keep on learning” ahead of the Elliott 6m quarter-finals.

The Poole crew of Macgregor, sister Kate and Annie Lush were beaten twice on a tough fourth day in Weymouth yesterday.

‘MacLush’ slipped to defeat against New Zealand (Stephanie Hazard, Jenna Hansen and Susannah Pyatt) and Russia (Ekaterina Skudina, Elena Syuzeva and Elena Oblova) to leave them tied fifth overall in the round robin phase of the competition, with a 50 per cent win ratio.

The girls looked sharp in the pre-start in race one, forcing the New Zealand boat into a penalty. But, after a close head-to-head tussle, the Brits were unable to capitalise on the Kiwis taking their penalty turns at the end of the race and suffered defeat.

In race two, both boats broke the line at the start, having to go back over the line, but it was the Russians who broke free and, in shifting conditions, there was no way back for Macgregor’s team despite their best efforts.

Lush said: “We are disappointed with how we sailed, particularly with our starts, our first race more so as towards the end of that race we had it sewn up with the New Zealanders having their penalty. Under normal circumstances, we should be able to take that win so it was disappointing to lose that for sure.

Lucy Macgregor added: “Our main loss in terms of distance with the Kiwis was at the windward mark. The wind was just so shifty and you couldn’t pick it – it was all a bit random so we were pretty disappointed to fall back on that. But it’s probably the way they are going to set the course so it’s something we need to learn from and get used to.

“In the other match against Ekaterina we were both over the start but they were in a better position to go back so they had a gain off the start and in some ways that was disappointing because we didn’t seem as quick as them.

“They sailed very well and credit to them. They didn’t really give us any opportunities to get back in the match.”

The girls are scheduled for just the one race today, against the Swedish trio of Anna Kjellberg, Malin Källström and Lotta Harrysson at 1.30pm.

A rest day is scheduled tomorrow with the girls set for their final two round robin races on Saturday.

The knock-out stage for the top eight boats commences next Wednesday.

Lucy Macgregor added: “I think we should get into the quarter-finals fine and seedings are so mixed-up you can’t even place where you want to be let alone where we are going to be.

“We have to finish in the top eight, keep on learning for now and make sure we come into the quarter finals, fresh and ready to beat whoever we are against.”