Emily Nagel, the Bermuda sailor, and her Team Vose-Glamour Racing crewmates staged a courageous fightback on day two of the ISAF Women’s World Match Racing Championships in Cork, Ireland, yesterday.

However, impressive victories against France and the Netherlands were still not enough to carry the team through to the quarter-finals.

Four losses on the opening day of the championships left the team, made up entirely of University of Southampton students, with a lot to do to keep their championship hopes alive.

Nagel and her team-mates made up precious ground after recording victories against France and the Netherlands when racing resumed yesterday in light and shifty conditions on the River Lee.

But further losses to Sweden, New Zealand and second teams from France and the Netherlands dashed any chance of Team Vose-Glamour finishing among the eight countries at the completion of the round-robin stage that will go on to contest the quarter-finals.

Summing up yesterday’s racing, Nagel, the team tactician and trimmer, said: “Racing was good but again only two wins, which puts us unfortunately in ninth place.

“We worked hard and improved greatly on yesterday’s [Wednesday] poor starts but lost some races due to small, silly mistakes.”

Team Vose-Glamour Racing, led by helmswoman Annabel Vose, who is ranked 50th in the ISAF world rankings, completed the 12-race round-robin stage with a record of four wins and eight losses.

“We beat all the teams in the similar age range, but lost out against the older, more experienced teams where we slipped up,” Nagel said. “We are learning a lot, though, and our speed is matched to the top teams.”

Two teams each from Denmark and Sweden, plus France, New Zealand, United States, and the Netherlands were the teams to reach the quarter-finals. The Danes and France occupied the top three places on the leaderboard with identical records of ten wins and two losses at the conclusion of the round robin.