A game of snakes and ladders in 2008 Monsoon Cup

The leaders are struggling and the followers are powering through to deliver wining results as the top match racing teams finish day two in the 2008 Monsoon Cup.

The day was full of exciting racing with crashes, penalties, mistakes and celebrations as the top 12 international match racing teams fought for dominance on the waters off Terengganu, Malaysia, in the final event of the World Match Racing Tour.

The excellent conditions allowed the race committee to complete seven flights.

Today's results are a reflection of the true challenges of match racing as leaders falter in their performance in one event and yet can pull up and deliver podium finishes in other tour events. This year alone the tour has eight different winners over the eight events preceding the Monsoon Cup.

At the start of the event Ian Williams' Bahrain Team Pindar holds the top place in the ISAF Match Racing World Championship on 92 points. In second place is Sebastien Col's K-Challenge team on 88 points and Mathieu Richard's French Spirit team on 77 points. Facing down the competition today in shifty breezes, strong currents and strong competition, all three leading teams are going to have to work harder, and look for a lot of luck, to keep themselves in the running if they want to qualify for the quarter final.

At the top of the leader board in the round robin stage with seven wins and only one loss is Paolo Cian's Team Shosholoza.

Cian has now beaten Richard, Adam Minoprio, Torvar Mirsky, Magnus Holmberg, Johnie Berntsson, Nurul Ain and Dato' Peter Gilmour. His only loss has been to Williams in yesterday's racing. Cian's dominance on the race course playing the shifts and working the strong current has been outstanding.

'It is an important event and an important tour for Team Shosholoza. I strongly believe the World Match Racing Tour is an important part of world match racing. My team is sailing the boat very well so I am confident enough that I can come back into the race and this is an important approach to match racing. If you make a mistake, you are still in the match.

'It is just the beginning. We are going to the quarter finals and then we start again,' Cian said.

On only just beating Keith Swinton by a matter of seconds Cain said 'I must congratulate them (Swinton's Black Swan Racing Team) and the way they are sailing the event. They don't look like newcomers. They sail the boat very well and I am not the only one to get penalties in the pre-starts.'

Hot on the tail of Cian is Torvar Mirsky's Mirsky Racing Team and Adam Minoprio's Black Match Racing team both with six wins each. Mirsky has rolled over the top of Richard, Holmberg, Berntsson, Ainslie, Swinton and Nurul Ain. His losses were to Cian and Minoprio.

Minoprio sailing with good boat speed and confident crew work has now beaten Williams, Col, Mirsky, Ainslie, Gilmour and Swinton. His only loss was to Cian. 'We had a good day plus a win against Ian (Williams) in one race. We got lucky and the rest of the race was really close and the lead changed a
lot,' Minoprio said.

So the pattern emerges as Cian stands out from the two nearest challengers who are yet to beat the feisty Italian.

The match of the day was undoubtedly the battle between 22 year-old Torvar Mirsky and 23 year-old Adam Minoprio. Both were placed equal fourth on the World Match Racing Tour leader board going into the Monsoon Cup. Their match really was a battle of the young guns.

Mirsky went into the match with five wins while Minoprio had four. It was race of determination and tactics as the two young crews showed why they are placed equal fourth on Match Racing Tour score board. Minoprio timed his start brilliantly and was right on time crossing the line a boat length clear of Mirsky. Outstanding crew work from the Mirsky racing Team crew had them gaining ground, but as Mirsky tacked the jib caught around the winch slowing the Mirsky Racing Team down. Mirsky continued to bite away at Minoprio's lead covering every move of the other team, but it was not enough with Minoprio and his Black Match Racing Team taking a decisive victory over Mirsky and his Mirsky Racing Team.

Olympic champion turned match racer, Ben Ainslie and his Team Origin, created high drama this afternoon when they collected the committee boat anchor chain at the start as they went into the last few seconds of their match start against Minoprio and his Black Match Racing Team. Both teams were fighting closely when they approached the start line. Minoprio pushed Ainslie from behind forcing him close to the boat. Battling the strong tide, Ainslie collected the anchor line while Minoprio sailed away comfortably.

Ainslie in commenting on his anchor chain experience noted he was under quite a bit of pressure at the time.

'To be honest we did not sail a great race today. We made a lot of bad mistakes. But, I have a really good team around me and we will just keep plugging away. It is all part of match racing; getting through the rounds and getting better each time.'

If that wasn't enough Peter Gilmour and his newly named Yanmar Racing Team, in his late afternoon match against Cian, also hit the committee boat at the start allowing Cian to sail freely away. Gilmour's team freed the boat and continued sailing, but he still carried a penalty out of that incident.

Gilmour said afterwards 'it was quite simply a mistake. The rope on the anchor is very, very long out there. Sometimes the committee boat is at a slightly different angle. You turn downwind and put the keel abeam of the flow of the current. It is like a trap if you don't realise it is coming up. In fact we were watching Ben (Ainslie) and that was how we worked out how to get off quickly'.

The match between Williams and Holmberg was re-sailed late in the afternoon after Williams protested the committee for allowing Holmberg to sail with a sixth man. The first match was sailed with Williams winning. But, on hearing the protest, the decision was made to re-sail the match. The drama did not stop there with two huge collisions between the two boats in the pre-start doing nothing to help the tension between the two teams as they lined up for second attempt at their match race. Williams sailed the match with a noticeable hole in the starboard side. The result of the re-sail is subject to protest.

Swinton and his Black Swan Racing team delivered two of the more surprising results of the day Young Swinton is new to the international match racing circuit with his first major World Match Racing Tour event the King Edward VII Bermuda World Cup where he finished sixth. Today Swinton out matched tour leader Ian Williams and second placed Sebastien Col.

'It was definitely good to beat the two top-ranked guys. We have had lots of races when were in a good position to win and we made some really bad mistakes. It has really come down to experience, which we do lack compared to some of the other guys here. Compared to Bermuda, the boats here are similar to most of the other boats on the tour so everyone starts fairly evenly. It has come down to teamwork and experience,' Swinton said.

At the end of day the results are as follows -

Bahrain Team Pindar 4 - 2 (subject to protest)
Ian Williams
Simon Shaw
Mark Nicholls
Richard Sydenham
Gerry Mitchell

French Match Racing Team / K-Challenge 4 - 3
Sebastien Col
Christophe Andre
Gilles Favennec
Christian Scherrer
Erwan Israel

French Match Racing Team / French Spirit 2 -5
Mathieu Richard
Olivier Herledant
Yannick Simon
Thierry Briand
Greg Evrard

Black Match Racing / ETNZ 6 - 1
Adam Minoprio
Tony Rae
David Swete
Tom Powrie
Nick Blackman

Mirsky Racing Team 6 - 1
Torvar Mirsky
Kyle Langdord
Kinley Fowler
Tudur Owen
Graeme Spence

Victory Challenge 4 - 3 (subject to protest)
Magnus Homberg
Stefan Rahm
Lars Linger
Bjorn Lundgren
Martin Berntsson

Team Shosholoza 7 - 1
Paolo Cian
Pierluigi Fornelli
Pierluigi de Felice
Anta Vigna
Pietro Mantovani

Berntsson Sailing Team 2 - 6
Johnie Berntsson
Daniel Walberg
Johan Backman
Johan Barne
Fredrik Aurell

Team Origin 4 - 3
Ben Ainslie
Iain Percy
Matthew Cornwell
Christian Kamp
Anthony Nossiter

Yanmar Racing Team 3 - 3
Peter Gilmour
Yasuhiro Yaji
Rod Dawson
Thierry Douillard
Kazuhiko Sofuku

Black Swan Racing 2 - 6
Keith Swinton
Doug Cooksey
Brad Sheridan
Jasper Warren
Adam Martin

Perak Sailing Team 0 - 7
Nurul Ain bt Md Isa
Hazwan Hazim B Dermawan
Muhammad Izzad B Samdin
Syed Ahmad Syahmi B Syed Ahmad Hilmi
Muhammad Shaifullah B Ali

Event website - http://www.monsooncup.com.my

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